My Fair Weasley!
by Cult Inkons-Glow
Summary: When Draco casually scoffs that in six months time, he can turn tone-deaf Ginny into the next (female) Joshua Bell *famous prodigy violinist!*, he had no idea what he was getting himself into... Based on the old movie 'My Fair Lady'
1. Default Chapter

This is the first fic for Cult Inkons_Glow, a collaboration between sasori (Mindo), Evil Spirit of the Ring (Minty), and their normal friend Alice (Alice). What can I (sasori) say? I love the movie "My Fair Lady" and forced ESoR to watch it with me. We're gonna team up on Alice too, sometime soon, but for now, she's beta-ing. 

Yippee! We got ourselves a beta! Finally!

  ESoR: Hey all! This is the second of the two Mindy's writing this crazy fic. Since Mindo's probably covering everything else, I have three words: READ AND REVIEW! Thankies ^^

                Sasori: yeah…what she said…

                Anyhoo…

Here goes!

Disclaimer: it would be an absolute DREAM to own Harry Potter and My Fair Lady, but as I said, it's a DREAM….sigh…

~~~~~~~~~

It was about half past noon when Remus Lupin, resident werewolf, ex-DADA teacher at 

Hogwarts, and current "Muggle" professor left the small Muggle cafe at the edge of town. The clouds were quite large and white, puffy and billowing in the pristine, clear blue sky, with an occasional bird streaking a black line across it. The professor, however, was not fooled by this deceptive appearance. Indeed, he had 

already begun taking out his worn-out, abominably plaid umbrella

No sooner had he shaken out the numerous creases in his umbrella, a sudden fat drop of water landed smack dab on the tip of his thin bladed nose. Hurriedly, he put up his umbrella, pulled his coat tighter around himself, and started walking quickly.  

The rain spattered mercilessly above his head, and had he not been a wizard, the 

water would have long ago beaten the old cloth above him to mere red and green fringes. He was sadly reminding himself that he seriously needed to find a better job, when he first heard it. Initially, he couldn't quite place the sound, and he rather thought it might have been a sick donkey with asthma. Puzzled, he 

paused a moment before continuing towards his destination, determined to ignore the sound 

'Heavens above. I've GOT to stop listening to Sirius' old Guns and Roses CDs...' he thought tiredly as he rounded a corner...and promptly flew forward as his foot connected with a rather large millstone with red hair.

The millstone paid no attention to him, and kept doggedly wheezing on the harmonica 

that Lupin had finally identified. Remus angrily wondered what kind of sick twisted idiot would play 

such blasted noise on a street corner and turned around to give that person a piece of his mind. He 

got up, brushing himself off quickly with an inconspicuous magic spell and fixed a 'professor' stare at the red head.

And gasped. Or not gasped, as Remus was not a gasping person. He simply did not 

see the logic in imitating fish, brainless chunks of white meat they were. Rather, he more or less took a 

sharp intake of breath and stared. 

"You...you...'

The young woman looked up wearily. "I'm sorry. I hope you're alright,' she said rather 

automatically, as if people falling on her head happened all the time. She turned back to blowing on her 

harmonica again listlessly. Remus gaped. A Muggle walked by and dropped a coin in the harmonica 

case before he realized what was going on.

                "Ginny Weasley!"

The mentioned girl didn't look up at Lupin but nodded, harmonica still moving randomly against her lips. Remus clapped his hands over his ears, failing miserably to block out the harsh tones while watching in shocked wonder as _more_ Muggles passed by, tossing _more_ coins into the case.

"Miss Weasley!" He shouted as loud as he could over the raucous noise. He released his ears when he noticed that he'd caught Ginny's attention and sighed in relief. "Miss Weasley, why on earth are you here? Playing...er, quite uniquely on a street curb?"

She shrugged indifferently, shifting a finger through the coins in the case as she counted the Muggle money. "Hard times, you know. With my harmonica, I play for my day's earning." She scooped the coins from the case, dropping them into the large pocket in her coat. Lupin grimaced slightly, trying to imagine how anybody could stand her music, let alone enjoy it. 

"Er, Miss Weasley, no insult intended, but can the Muggles enjoy such...such..." He motioned towards her harmonica with his finger, unable to place a word for the hellish melody he'd heard.

Ginny smiled mischievously, fiddling with the worn instrument in her hands. "Well...with the help of magic, all Muggles can enjoy the music I bring into the world! But -" She looked up at Lupin. "The magic only affects Muggles, so I can't help you there."

Suddenly realizing that this total stranger had known her name, she snapped her attention to the man next to her. 

"Wait...how did you know my name?"

Lupin mentally slapped himself at the girl's slow reactions, but was more taken aback as Ginny's face donned another "realization" expression. "And...you're not a Muggle, are you?"

Remus shook his head to the latter's question. "No, I'm magical, just like you are. I go by Remus Lupin."

Ginny slowly let the information sink in, before smiling. "Oh yes. You were the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts one year. "Everybody considered you one of the best DADA teacher ever." She nodded before looking up at her ex-professor curiously. "What are YOU doing here, Professor?"

Lupin cleared his throat nervously. "Well...uh, I came looking for someone, but I'm not sure whether...he's...here."

Ginny eyed the professor warily before putting the harmonica once more to her lips. On cue, Lupin covered his ears just as the horrible melody (if you can call it a melody) tumbled out of the instrument.

Ginny puffed heartily into the little silver contraption, and Lupin could not see how 

Muggles could so easily toss coins and stare at her with admiration. In fact, they stared at him, 

hands clapped over the side of his head as if he was crazy. Remus only winced, and wondered how 

long it would be before the discordant strains would drive him to suicide. 

Just when the poor werewolf was about to start crying hysterically and beg the girl to 

stop (in fact, he was already asking her with a slight note of panic in his voice to please bring to a halt your playing, and let's go have a cup of tea, shall we?) when a bored and slightly irritated voice cut through the horrid screeching and moaning. 

"Oh for the good Lord's Sake will you stop that infernal NOISE?!" 

Ginny and the professor looked around, astonished. There, just a few feet away, stood 

a tall, well-dressed man. His silver hair was covered by a felt brim hat, and his dark glare was 

directed at the Weasley. 

"I was playing my harmonica, that I was, sir." Ginny responded bleakly after getting over 

the initial shock of being interrupted twice in less than half an hour. Somewhat indignantly, she began blowing- if possibly- even louder and the sound was- again, if possible- twice as grating as before.  Remus was feeling close to tears again, when the man strode over, took the harmonica, and tossed it across the street. 

"You call that playing? Miss, I'm sorry to tell you, but you can't play worth SHIT."

Ginny glared at him. "...My harmonica..." 

"That was a harmonica? It sounded like a wretched ass with a bad case of 

pneumonia." The stranger said disdainfully. Repressing a snort, Remus nevertheless tried to defend the girl, gentleman as he was. 

"Nonsense, young sir. I think she plays...absolutely...spiffy..."

The man snorted. "Spiffy indeed. Oh, she plays beautifully alright. For a deaf, one eyed, tongue less old cow with laryngitis." 

"...Hey. My harmonica. I want my harmonica back." Ginny suddenly clambered to her feet and started glaring in righteous indignation at the perpetrator. "How rude! You may not like my harmonica _or_ me, but throwing my poor harmonica into the gutter?! That was absolutely uncalled for! I demand a new one!" 

The man snorted. "So you can what? Drive more hoards of people insane with your devilish, pathetic attempts at music?"

                "Only the Magic-folk." Ginny tossed her head. "I need money. What's it to _you_ if I trick a few Muggles?"

                The man rolled his eyes and told her sharply, "Money? With that playing? You must be joking! Without your magic, you wouldn't be able to earn a shilling!"

"That's precisely _why _ I use my magic to my advantage. That's what my brothers always told me. 'Listen here, Gin' they say, 'Mum and Dad may not like it, but sometimes, you've got to think and work for yourself.'"

"And that's what you're doing?" He asked sarcastically. 

"And that's what I'm doing." Ginny nodded firmly. "Earning a living with my harmonica. Now give me a new one!"

The tall man snorted and tossed her a Knut. "Gladly, child. But I can tell you one thing. You give me sixth months, and I can you playing any instrument of your choice at Carnegie Hall, Paris Opera House, whatever place you choose." He strode off across the street, leaving Ginny blinking and slowly pondering what had just been told to her.

                "Well, that certainly would be considerably nicer than playing at the corner of Westham and Mimosa…"

                Lupin shook his head. "Ginny, I don't think he was serious." 

                "Oh, perfectly!" was the airy answer from half a street away. Remus spotted the spark of gears turning rustily in his companions brain, and hurried after the stranger before Ginny could take him seriously.

"Now hold on a minute. You aren't serious? Let me tell you, I think she might be seriously considering your offer. Who are you?"

                The man stopped suddenly, and Remus quickly also quit his steps. Shrewd gray eyes studied from under the brim of the hat.  "Draco Malfoy, music professor at Julliard's, in New York."

"Wha...?" Ginny, who'd run up behind them now stared at Malfoy, not in awe, as someone else might, but rather, in confusion. Remus looked positively surprised and delighted however. 

                 "Malfoy! How are you? I was just on my way to meet you!" Remus said in surprise

                 "Whatever for?" Malfoy said carelessly, not quite surprised anybody would want to see him

                "I'm Remus Lupin. Literature professor at Oxford."

                Malfoy looked stunned, then smiled widely. "Professor Lupin! I was on my way to see YOU! How have you been? How do you like Oxford?" The two men, oblivious to the shell-shocked woman behind them, started walking, chatting amiably with each other.

                Ginny blinked again. How strange. She could have sworn that the man had said he was Draco Malfoy. And he was a music professor at Julliard. Malfoy? Malfoy… well, no matter. There were probably many Malfoys in the world, and he really was a music teacher! So maybe she really could play at Car-Cer- the Sydney Opera House or whatever. Tossing her thick red hair behind a shoulder, she ran after the two. 

                "Hey, Hey! Wait a minute! Hold on!" 

                Malfoy turned around and regarded her with a slight sneer. "Do you have a problem?" Ginny, gasping for breath, didn't answer and just shook her head. He sighed. "Look, if you really 

want your harmonica back...here" He took out a billfold and peeled a couple of pounds and hands them to her. "If you change the Knut into Muggle currency, you might be able to buy yourself those really big ones." Draco said sarcastically.

Ginny pushed the outstretched hand back. "No….nononono…you...you said you could teach me in six months...to be a real musician...I'd like that!"

Malfoy quirks an eyebrow. "Did I say that?"

"Yes you did!"

                He glanced at Lupin. "DID I say that?"

"I'm afraid you did, my dear Malfoy

The younger man sighed in annoyance, running a hand through his hair and knocking his hat off during the process. Ginny immediately snatched the object from the ground and held it away from the owner. 

"I shan't give you your hat back until you agree to teach me," she taunted, flapping the hat in front of his face.

Malfoy smirked. "I can get more of those. I needn't help a vermin like you," he replied, turning a deaf ear to Ginny's shrieks as he continued to walk down the streets. Lupin stopped Malfoy, stepping in front of him and blocking his way. A small smile of amusement played on his lips. 

"I don't know, Malfoy. You DID say that you can help the girl. Besides, if you turn this down, I'll believe that you aren't THE Great Malfoy."

 Malfoy frowned at this thought, musing. "Quite right…quite right... that may be a 

problem." He suddenly whirled around, his trench coat flaring out behind him and began running his eyes 

judgmentally over Ginny, who continued to stare defiant.

"Professor, you're absolutely correct," he finally said with conviction. "I'll do it. It might 

prove a bit of a challenge, though God knows that wouldn't hurt."

"Marvelous." Remus replied, smiling.

Draco looked at Ginny again, eyes narrowed. 

"Are you willing to commit yourself? Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day? An instrument can't be played by magic. Magic isn't anything musical." He told her. Ginny flushed a bit. 

"I can do it." 

"You'll have to work hard, you know. And I'm not the best-tempered of teachers." He warned again. Ginny nodded. "Give me a chance!"

Draco nodded slowly. "Very well." His mouth suddenly quirked into a smirk. "Just you watch, little girl. In six months, I swear to you that I'll have you playing in Carnegie Hall right up there next to the greatest musicians of all time." 

~~~~~~~

what can I (sasori) say? we like quick beginnings, I guess… =^^= I was going to rant about me other two cowriters…but they threatened me with infinitely painful tickling if I did…so oh well.

Nt much else to say, 'cept….do review! And if you must criticize, do so constructively. We (specially me) have a problem with reviews that go 'this is stupid' and with no reason _why_. So yes! anyhoo….thanks a bunch!


	2. No More Bagpipes PLEASE

                    *Sorry so late in posting. We had this written about…oh, three weeks ago, but due to some ah, technical difficulties (my computer crashing…) it was delayed…
    
    yargh. Evil email formatting thinger…
    
    Much thanks to those who reviewed! We are very, very happy =^^=
    
    Just a few comments…
    
    Yeah, sorry about those tenses. Alice was in the middle of beta-ing it, when her
    
    email died, so bleh, we just posted it (it's all her fault! Her fault! Her- )
    
    Alice: HEY!!! *blows raspberry and sticks out tongue* I resent that...~chucks
    
    wireless mouse at mindy squared~ anyway....Thank you for the reviews!!!
    
    Hopefully, I'll be able to get the computer to work soon....
    
    Sasori:...anyhoo…I swear to god our English does not seem as bad as it seems. I
    
    heroically take the blame…lol.
    
    What else? oh, yeah, Ginny. Teehee. We were kinda thinking it might be more fun
    
    if we had her kind of slow… There are so many stories with her being witty and
    
    smart and totally awesome, we figured, 'well what if Ginny was the eccentric
    
    Weasley? Not stupid, just sort of strange…'. If you really can't stand that, do
    
    tell us, we'll change. And the rest of the characters?
    
    Sasori:….mweeheeheeheehee…..*glint*.
    
    ESoR: Err...yea, didn't mean to make Ginny sound so stupid, but Mindo insisted
    
    on it. *Slowly steps away from Sasori*
    
    Sasori: Did not! You forgot to make her smart, and I just didn't want to change
    
    it, so there! *nyah nyah nyah*
    
    ESoR: What?! I just forgot that she wasn't supposed to recognize Lupin, but by
    
    then, it was kinda too late! And you said her slowness is GOOD for the fic! =P
    
    Sasori: *gasp* blasphemy! I would never, ever, ever- *cough* okay,
    
    anyhoo…storytime! *ducks*
    
    Disclaimer: WE disclaim My Fair Lady and Harry Potter and all else that through
    
    the Powers that Be appear in this ficcie…
    
    ~~~~
    
                        It was a reddish-brown brick house stuck in the middle of other reddish-brown
    
    houses. There was nothing too special about it, but there was a little dent on
    
    one of the cement stairs, as if something had fallen and exploded. The windows
    
    were bordered with white, and the two lower ones had pots of violets
    
    neatly in a row on the sill. This house sat on a street somewhere in England,on
    
    a street where people who only kept bathroom slippers worth eighty pounds or
    
    more resided. Yet they all insisted on finding the cheapest sort of clothing,
    
    the type found in regular department stores, claiming that those nice fur
    
    coats were just too much for them. Eight out of ten of them could have had at
    
    the very least, half a dozen mink coats. The other two of ten already owned
    
    them, though hidden under bushels of mothballs and tissue paper.
    
                        Such was the street where Draco Malfoy, music professor and great piano
    
    virtuoso, kept his town house. It was a neighborhood of high standards, yet with
    
    false pretenses of wannabe middle-class. Why anyone would want to live there,
    
    especially Malfoy, was beyond capable minds. In truth, even Draco had been a bit
    
    startled at his own audacity of buying the home on the spot, but it might have
    
    been all due to the old lady next door who often shouted at him for making much
    
    noise. Much of his amusement had been at her expense, and he'd continually pound
    
    away at his baby grand piano, gleefully ignoring the sound of muffled high
    
    pitched shrieking and shattering pottery against his walls. Unfortunately, the
    
    old lady died half a year later of supposed old age, but a disappointed Draco
    
    continued to believe that it was because he had skipped a day of pounding. She'd
    
    been too relaxed the whole day, without his music, and lost a grip on the mortal
    
    realm, thus slipped away.
    
    For a time once more, the residents of Appledore Street had considerable peace
    
    again, and was finally getting used to it. It had almost becoming a wonderful
    
    tranquility And then, one day, Mr. Draco Malfoy brought home another new
    
    calamity.
    
    Ginny Weasley.
    
    ****
    
    "This street is…Appledore." Ginny, eyes wide, stumbled after Draco and Remus.
    
    "They call it the 'British Beverly Hills,'" she said.
    
    Draco snorted. "Americans do. We call Beverly Hills the 'American Appledore.'"
    
    Ginny was paying no attention though. Her eyes were glinting, and the words
    
    'high-rollers', 'money' and 'where's my blasted harmonica ?' circled in her
    
    head. Her eyes darted about the street as she searched feverishly for her
    
    harmonica, even though she knew that it was cluttered somewhere along the
    
    streets of (whatever the street name was that Draco had threw her harmonica in).
    
    Lupin noticed her distracted gaze as she continually bumped into him. He smiled,
    
    knowing what she was looking for.
    
    "Don't worry, Ginny. We'll find you something much nicer than a harmonica,"
    
    Lupin reassured her.
    
    "Something MUCH nicer," Draco muttered, emphasizing the "much" excessively. He
    
    looked up at the large building before him, what he called "home". Fitting a
    
    large key into the large lock, he opened the door, not bothering to hold it open
    
    for the other two. Lupin slipped into the house and moved the door stopper into
    
    place in one swift movement. He glanced back at Ginny before following Draco
    
    down the hall, trusting that she would follow them.
    
                        Ginny gaped at the house, tilting slightly backwards on the front steps to
    
    allow her the full view of the house. Her eyes moved slowly from the cracked
    
    bricks down to the dent in the cement stairs. Certainly, the house was better
    
    than any house she had lived in, but a MALFOY living here? He must've been on
    
    drugs when he bought this house, Ginny thought, shaking her head as she stepped
    
    into the building, slipped the doorstopper out of place and sprinting down the
    
    hall after the other two.
    
                        The interior of the house was tastefully, but sparsely decorated. There were a
    
    few choice tables here and there, or a nice painting over a fireplace or
    
    something, but with nothing too extravagant. It looked like a typical Muggle
    
    house that belonged to a typical Muggle professor (albeit with a fetish for
    
    green and silver). Or, at least that's what Ginny thought, until Draco reached a
    
    door at the end of the hall, unlocked it, and flung it open with casual grace,
    
    allowing her and Lupin to view the rest of the house. The rest of the
    
    magically-enhanced, morbid, green-and-silver house.
    
    From the entrance to the end of the long, dark corridor, were dimly lit lamps,
    
    reflecting a gloomy forest green. The marble floor was checkered with a precise
    
    black and white, giving a cold and calculating feel. Ginny felt Lupin twitch in
    
    surprise, and she herself gaped. Draco continued into the hall, his shoes making
    
    a clicking sound on the floor.
    
    "Follow me."
    
    Ginny and Lupin stared at each other.
    
    "Ladies first."
    
    "Oh, but I insist. Please, go right ahead." Ginny retorted.
    
    "Ahem." Draco coughed, sounding irritated. His two companions jumped and
    
    hurriedly scrambled after him. The door closed silently, and Ginny felt a moment
    
    of panic before Draco began talking.
    
    "This is the main part of the house," he told them. "Your rooms will be in the
    
    Muggle house, but all your training and such will take place in here. Therefore,
    
    this place should become more important to you than your bed and closet ." Ginny
    
    had sudden images of iron maidens, spiked wheels, and leather
    
    whips. Draco just smirked at her terrified and faintly nauseated expression and
    
    pointed to a door on the left. "This door here," he reached over with a sinister
    
    glint in his eye. "leads to…" Ginny ducked behind Remus and peeked out from the
    
    crook of his arm.
    
    "The brass instruments." Draco flung the door wide and both Ginny and Remus gave
    
    startled gasps (or gapes) at the large room, filled with an assortment of brass
    
    instruments. Trumpets, trombones, bugle, English and French horns, tubas, and
    
    so much more. Despite the large number of objects, the room was neatly
    
    arranged. Each instrument was displayed as if in a museum, with a small note
    
    card and labeling beneath it.
    
    "I keep all my instruments separately." Draco told them a bit smugly.
    
    "God…I never knew you were so paranoid…" Remus muttered. Draco tossed him a
    
    glare and shut the door, almost smashing Ginny's inquisitive nose.
    
    They continued down the hall, with Draco opening more doors, although with less
    
    flair than he had (the 'paranoid' had gotten to him). In less than half an hour,
    
    Ginny had seen more musical instruments than she or her family had ever, in
    
    their lives. She had also been given a crash course in them, and was now, to her
    
    chagrin, able to tell apart a Spanish castanet and an orchestral castanet. With
    
    her mind whirling with accordions, violas, Alphorns, bongo drums, oboes, and
    
    whatnots, she finally sat down weakly in the living room of Draco's home.
    
    "So."
    
    She stared at him and Lupin blankly.
    
    "So?"
    
    "Pick your instrument."
    
    "Ri-right now?!" Ginny blinked. Draco looked at her condescendingly.
    
    "Right… er…Can I- can I look around…myself?" Draco sighed in annoyance, and
    
    Remus gave him a look like 'let her. She'll only make you worse in time.'
    
    Gratefully, Ginny started from her seat and fairly raced out of the room. She
    
    took one look in each direction, then turned left and began walking quickly.
    
    Where was the door? She had to get out here!
    
    Unfortunately, she seemed to have gone the wrong direction, and before she knew
    
    it, had run smack dab into a dead end. Rubbing the end of her nose, she blinked
    
    away tears of pain and cursed the bad lighting. Spinning around, she prepared to
    
    run back in the other direction, when the slightly open door on her right
    
    distracted her. It was a door that her host hadn't shown, and just because of
    
    that, it made her all the more curious. Darting a look towards the light from
    
    the living room down the hall, Ginny quietly pushed open the door and stepped
    
    in.
    
    The light was brighter in this room, and seemed to be a trophy room. There were
    
    rows and rows of beech wood, where numerous awards and medals were placed
    
    carefully, each on its own pedestal. Certificates of Merit hung framed on the
    
    walls. Everything looked perfectly dusted and perfectly kept. Stunned, Ginny
    
    walked around the room dazedly, and came to one corner of the room. Her eyes
    
    alighted on one particular shelf, where numerous wizard pictures and some
    
    unanimated ones were framed and displayed. Curious, she scanned each of them
    
    quickly, and suddenly began feeling a dreadful feeling in the pit of her
    
    stomach. Feeling as if eyes were boring into the back of her head, she whirled
    
    around and stared. Her fears were justified; she began screaming banshee-like.
    
    Remus had been just about to launch into a description of what he'd been
    
    planning to Draco when a horrible shriek echoed down the hall. Instantly, crumbs
    
    of strawberry shortcake somehow lodged themselves in his throat and he began
    
    hacking violently. The other man, however, had muttered something about 'stupid
    
    Weasels' and jumped to his feet.
    
    Pounding at his chest, Lupin quickly wiped his watering eyes and raced after
    
    him. As soon as he stepped into the hallway, a sense of disorientation hit him.
    
    Dizzily, he shook his head and ran after Draco, cursing the evil echoes that
    
    bounced around the halls, causing some of the more delicate instruments to
    
    vibrate slightly and the walls to shake.
    
    They found her in the trophy room, staring dead straight at a framed picture and
    
    her face pale white. Draco noted distastefully that her freckles stood out
    
    abominably.
    
    "What is it?" Remus asked Draco.
    
    "I think she just realized where she is." He murmured back, annoyed but
    
    nevertheless, wickedly amused. Lupin leaned over and adjusted his glasses,
    
    studying the moving picture.
    
    "Why, that's your Hogwarts graduation photo! Look, there's Harry and Ron! My my,
    
    they seemed to be permanently scowling." Remus commented. Ginny stopped
    
    screaming, and instead looked at Draco in shock and horror.
    
    "You're…you're you're… you're the…"
    
    "Musical virtuoso? The Next Mozart? Most Eligible Bachelor in England? Genius?"
    
    Draco supplied helpfully.
    
    "You're Ferret Malfoy!" she shrieked. Remus suddenly started coughing again,
    
    much more violently than before. Draco flat-out glared at him, then turned
    
    venomously on the hyperventilating girl.
    
    "Well, fine. Who did you think I was?" he shot back nastily.
    
    "I-I don't know…I was hoping that…maybe you had…you know…only the same name?"
    
    Ginny returned weakly. Draco tossed his head.
    
    "Of course not! I'm the only person on this world allowed to be named 'Draco
    
    Malfoy'. My father had that name copyrighted at my birth." Ginny stared a beat,
    
    then joined Remus in hacking up a lung.
    
    Draco tapped his foot impatiently while glaring at the shaking bodies of the two
    
    until Ginny stood and gasped for a decent breath of air. He opened his mouth to
    
    say some biting, evil, arrogant comment to recollect his broken dignity, but
    
    checked himself and instead drawled:
    
    "Well, Weasley. Had you decided which instrument you're going to play? Nothing
    
    expensive, mind you. I don't want to have thousands of pieces of a thousand
    
    dollar instrument on the floor."
    
    Ginny, upon discovering the identity of the professor, had racked her brain
    
    furiously for any loopholes out of the deal she had sealed herself in. "Well
    
    then, Malfoy - "
    
    "Professor Malfoy." Malfoy interrupted, putting great emphasis on the
    
    "professor" proudly, greatly enjoying rubbing this fact into Ginny's face.
    
    "PROFESSOR Malfoy," Ginny mimicked, drawing out the word grotesquely. "I'm
    
    beginning to think that I will never be able to…erm, play any of the instruments
    
    you have without…slightly damaging it. So…I believe that I won't be able to do
    
    this - be able to play at Calgery Hall." Ginny watched Malfoy, waiting hopefully
    
    for a release from the deal.
    
    Malfoy's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the redhead. "First of all, it's
    
    Carnegie Hall. And second, we're not Muggles. We - use - magic - to - repair -
    
    any - damage." He drew out the last phrase as if Ginny was a first grader. Ginny
    
    grimaced, feeling incredibly silly, and hint of hope disappearing from her mind.
    
    Lupin, meanwhile, had recovered from his coughing fit and was watching the two
    
    with amused interest.
    
    Draco had noticed her reaction, and he furrowed his brows as he glared at Ginny.
    
    "You were trying to back out of the deal, weren't you?" he demanded.
    
    Ginny's head shot up and answered a bit too quickly. "NO! I me - I mean…why
    
    would I?"
    
    Draco smirked, wanting to draw this torturing out for all its worth. "Oh, I
    
    don't know. Maybe because I'm a MALFOY…" His effort was rewarded with another
    
    grimace on Ginny's part, and he smiled. "That's the reason, isn't it? You think
    
    I'm not good enough to teach you. Well…if I had known better, I'd say that you
    
    are too lowly to touch any of my instruments anyway." He tipped his head to one
    
    side thoughtfully. "Actually, I suppose I do, but alas, me and my soft heart."
    
    "Soft-heart my ass." Ginny muttered. Remus caught the venomous glares and jumped
    
    in.
    
    "Ah, Ginny my dear, it seems as if you have no easy way out of this situation.
    
    Why don't you just go along with it? I'm sure six months of your life doing
    
    something productive can't hurt."
    
    "It'll be the last six months of my life, and it's going to be bloody
    
    torturous!" Remus' former student replied in slight panic. Lupin shook his head
    
    slowly and sighed.
    
    "Come, let's go together. I'd certainly like more time to study these marvelous
    
    instruments."
    
    "Study them yourself! I won't go." Finally, Ginny flat out refused.
    
    "I hear oboists are in the trend lately." Ginny shook her head.
    
    "How about the lovely accordion? 'La Vie en Rose'?"
    
    No.
    
    "Flutes are nice…"
    
    No.
    
    "How about the drum set?"
    
    No-wait…
    
    "No! I will not run the risk of suddenly having a garage band in my home!"
    
    Fine. No.
    
    "Do you like foreign instruments? A sitar?"
    
    No.
    
    "Conga drums?"
    
    "Lupin… I'm warning you…stay away from drums!"
    
    "Guitar?"
    
    No.
    
    "Saxophone?"
    
    No.
    
    The poor professor finally lost it.
    
    "What do you want to play then?! Shall he teach you the blasted bagpipe?!"
    
    "I'd love it!"
    
    Lupin and Malfoy stared. Apparently, they hadn't thought Ginny'd actually decide
    
    on anything.
    
    "It has always been my life long dream to play a bagpipe!" Ginny clasped her
    
    hands to her chest and her eyes sparkled happily. "My mother's uncle, you know,
    
    was Scottish, and once a upon a time, I'd sit upon his knee, and he'd tell me,
    
    "Eh, m'lass, playin the bagpipe is nought' o' t'be ashaimed of. It's jus' ta
    
    squeeze o' your ahrm an a blow n' your lips, an' you make beoot'ful music.'."
    
    Draco heard this recitation, aghast. He'd hope that playing the bagpipe was not
    
    this easy. Lupin was shaking with silent laughter at Ginny's attempt at a
    
    Scottish accent. It sounded nowhere near. He glanced at Ginny and his laughter
    
    died out as he realized she was serious.
    
    "Please?! I'd love to try a bagpipe on!" Ginny entreated them, having made a
    
    one-hundred eighty degree attitude change.
    
    "Lupin… She's serious." Draco muttered.
    
    "I know, Draco. Do you think we should let her try?"
    
    "I hope not!" He muttered back, then cleared his throat. "Weasley, I er, I don't
    
    think a bagpipe is right for you."
    
    Ginny's face crumpled. "Why ever not?!"
    
    Malfoy threw a look at Lupin.
    
    "Because, ah, bagpipes are… well, it requires a lot of, well, uhm…" The
    
    professor cast around for a word that meant 'talent'.
    
    "Because you won't be able to play it." Malfoy interjected.
    
    "I will! Let me try! Please!" Ginny begged them, earnestly gazing at the two
    
    professors. The two men exchanged looks.
    
    "Well, it can't hurt to try…"
    
    "You'd be surprised." Draco snorted. "Alright. Fine. We'll let you try the
    
    stupid bagpipe." Squealing, Ginny happily clapped her hands.
    
    Draco whirled around gracefully and walked out of the trophy room, Ginny
    
    following him eagerly, and Lupin trailing behind the procession. Draco led them
    
    back down the hall they had been in earlier, and he stopped at the door labeled
    
    "Foreign Instruments". He flung the double doors open, but before he could even
    
    set a foot in, Ginny had pushed past him and started ogling at all the different
    
    instruments. Her eyes settled on a large bagpipe. She picked it up gently and
    
    cradled it like it was a baby.
    
    Malfoy had stepped up behind her, a scowl appearing on his face as he imagined
    
    the horrendous noise that's about to come. Lupin watched on from the doorway,
    
    the amused smile still on his face. "Go on Ginny...try it"
    
    Ginny's face lightened up and she set the bagpipes under her left arm,
    
    supporting the instrument with her right arm. She placed pipes to her lips and
    
    she began to blow with all her might, giving the bag a large squeeze now and
    
    then. [ESoR: Is that how they play it? *shrug*]
    
    And she produced the most hideous sound imaginable. No, scratch that. It was so
    
    horrible it was not recognizable as anything ever produced by anything on Earth.
    
    It kept every ounce of self control Draco had ever learned from Lucius to keep
    
    himself from crying out. He quickly clamped his ears shut with his hands, and
    
    took a glance at Lupin.
    
    The poor professor had immediately lost his smile, replaced by a grimace. His
    
    hands were too covering his ears, and he was howling loudly for Ginny to stop.
    
    His howls, Draco noticed, just seemed to add to the clashing sounds.
    
    He...had...had...enough.
    
    He wrenched the instrument out from Ginny's grasp, not exactly caring at all
    
    whether he broke the instrument or not, and flung it back onto the stands.
    
    Ignoring Ginny's shrieks, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out to the hall,
    
    also motioning for Lupin to follow.
    
    When they were all standing out in the hall, and the doors to the now accursed
    
    room closed, Draco whirled around to fume at Ginny.
    
    "You...are...never...to...play...another...wind...instrument" he managed to
    
    sputter out. Lupin smiled meekly. "I think we should have realized that when we
    
    heard her play the harmonica."
    
    Ginny stared at Lupin before huffing indignately. "My harmonica tunes were just
    
    fine."
    
    "Yeah, for homeless people who consider banging on trash cans music," Draco
    
    mumbled, before examining Ginny. What on Earth can Ginny play without causing
    
    the use of hearing devices popular? Hm...a stringed instrument, possibly? The
    
    girl didn't seem strong enough to saw any strings in half with a bow, let alone
    
    the instrument. He tapped a finger on his forehead thoughtfully before turning
    
    around and walking down the hallway. Ginny and Lupin had no choice but to follow
    
    him meekly, much like sheep following a shepherd.
    
    They stopped in front of another set of double doors, this time labeled
    
    "Stringed Instruments". Ginny quirked an eyebrow in a curious fashion as Malfoy
    
    opened the doors, more carefully this time. The three stepped inside, and Draco
    
    moved off into the general area where the violins were kept. Ginny looked about
    
    the room and nearly shrieked in surprise as she found herself towered over by a
    
    full sized bass. Getting over her shock, she reached out to touch the large
    
    instrument. Before she could, something was thrust into her hands.
    
    She looked up to find Malfoy glaring at her, almost daring her to try another
    
    "bagpipe incident" with the bass. She shifted her gaze down to what he had put
    
    into her hands, and found herself holding a violin by the neck in one hand and a
    
    bow in the other. She brought the instrument up to eye level and began to
    
    examine it. After a minute, she still hadn't figured how to work it. She blankly
    
    looked at Malfoy and Lupin, shrugging slightly.
    
    Malfoy sighed in impatience before snapping, "Well Weasley? Are you going to try
    
    playing it or not? I know it's the most expensive piece you've ever held, but
    
    you don't need to spend all our time just looking at it."
    
    Ginny bit her lip angrily, stopping the retort from rolling off her tongue. She
    
    instead focused on Lupin. "How do I work this thing?" she asked, holding the
    
    violin up.
    
    Lupin stifled a snort, and Draco slapped a hand to his face. He tore the violin
    
    away from Ginny's grasp and roughly pushed the end of the instrument under
    
    Ginny's chin, adjusting the shoulder rest to line with the curve of her
    
    shoulder. He grabbed her left arm and propped the neck of the violin into her
    
    hands. He then took a hold of the bow, carefully avoiding touching the hairs. He
    
    stuck this into Ginny's right hand, and brought her arm up so the bow settled on
    
    the D string of the violin. Ginny stood there, poised and looking dumbfounded.
    
    Now what? she thought.
    
    "You pull the bow so that it slides across the string at a perpendicular angle.
    
    Make sure to exert some pressure on it or a scratchy sound will be produced,"
    
    Malfoy tiredly answered her unasked question.
    
    Ginny nodded mechanically and pulled the bow across the string, careful to do as
    
    Malfoy instructed. Malfoy automatically winced, expecting a sound resembling
    
    that of a screaming pig. Lupin also had the same thought in mind, and had his
    
    hands poised over his ears. Instead...
    
    The flawless tone of a D resounded through the room. The note echoed about the
    
    room before dying out, a surprised look appearing on all three faces. Ginny
    
    looked utterly dumbfounded, and her arms were frozen in the motion she'd stopped
    
    in. Lupin's face slowly cracked into a large smile, and Draco's lips
    
    tugged upwards slightly.
    
    "Thank the Lord," he breathed.
    
    ~~~~
    
    Sasori: well….that's one chapter over with. heh. BTW. The accent part…I have no
    
    idea what a Scottish accent sounds like. I'm very sorry to those who are nit
    
    picky and have to have every pronunciation correct to the bone. Can anyone link
    
    me to a website where they teach you to speak in a Scottish accent? If so, then
    
    I'll fix that up there. =^^=
    
                        We admit it! we have no earthly clue how to play a bagpipe! Though I personally
    
    think it'd be tight to own one…teehee. I play the violin though, and ESoR plays
    
    the cello, so our knowledge of string instruments should be slightly higher than
    
    of wind. Alice plays….she plays…the electric French horn! Haha. No. Just
    
    kidding.
    
    *Alice chucks a tube of body lotion at sasori*
    
    ESoR: O gosh...thank goodness Sasori doesn't own a bagpipe...and Alice doesn't
    
    own a horn
    
    *Alice chucks a speakerphone at ESoR*
    
    Thank you for the reviews!!! We are very honored to have heard your comments and
    
    suggestions *bows as a clash of gongs sound behind*


	3. Jes' choo WAIT 'enry 'iggins

Hmm…not much to say about this one…except that the stupid email formatting is really annoying me *me, and me* 

Haha. 

Read and enjoy. Here within includes the famous rant scene. *sasori's personal favorite scene*

Disclaimer: we own nothing but the hairdryers we chuck at each other, so don't even think about it. No! no thinking! Just Read!

***** 

  
      Lupin yawned loudly, turning over and burying his face in the light gray pillow. His temples were throbbing murderously, no doubt from the past two weeks of utter torture. And it was still going on. He could hear faintly the struggles between teacher and pupil, even though his room was supposed to be soundproof.   
      The two torturous weeks so far had frayed everyone's nerves to fine thin threads. Ginny was by no means a musical genius, and getting her to play professionally in six months was being deemed by his inner conscious as 'bloody impossible'. There had been late nights, early morning, before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, before dinner, and after dinner practices, on which it seemed that Ginny was constantly forgetting what she'd just learned two hours ago. Draco complained it was slow torture. Ginny shot back that it had been his idea, whereupon he'd fix her with a mighty glare and shout, "Raise that violin higher!! And fix that B flat! It sounds absolutely appalling!"   
      He banged his face into the gray pillow a few times, rolled out of bed and stumbled into the adjacent bathroom. After relieving his bladder and showering, he dressed, and groped around for earplugs, ramming them into his ear canals. Prepared, he took a deep breath and bravely left the comparatively silent room.   
      "Keep your bow steady! Don't let it drop and wriggle all over the place! That's right…long bows… now play E Major scale, two octaves." Draco calmly ordered, sipping his morning tea. Despite his regal posture, Lupin noted that he looked awful.   
      "Morning Draco, Ginny." He nodded. Draco jerked his head.   
      "Newspaper's over there. Would you hand me the aspirin?" Lupin shook his head, trying not to smile at the panda eyes Draco had developed. He tossed the bottle to him and sat down at the table with the newspaper.   
      "Be nice and share some with Ginny." Draco made a face, and knocked back two. He placed the aspirins on the coffee table in front of him enticingly.   
      "Now, Weasley, see these aspirins? Wonders of the Muggle medicine. They can cure that horrible, big, aching migraine you have in that tiny little head of yours." Despite herself, Ginny began looking at the small bottle as if it were the Holy Grail. "You can have some…"   
Ginny practically dropped her violin and lunged for the bottle, a split second too late as Draco whisked the bottle away.   
      "But you play me that scale, and then Mazas No. 13 first!" He growled ferociously at her brown, watering eyes. Ginny wailed.   
      "My fingers are blistered, my arms ache, my head is throbbing, my eyes hurt, and I hate Hate HATE this stupid scale!!!" Her voice rose to a shriek.   
      Draco stared at her stonily til she quieted down. He pointed at the violin stand.   
      "Sight read Kreutzer No. 4." She looked despairingly at Lupin, who quickly pretended not to notice as he buttered his toast. "NOW!"   
      Ginny's faced scrunched up and she gave the violin a particularly vicious twang and she turned back to her music. Draco calmly set down his tea cup and picked up a magazine. While he thought no one was looking, he slipped another aspirin into his mouth and added a bit of gin in his drink. Remus smothered a chuckle. Instead, he finished eating his breakfast and wiped his mouth with his napkin.   
      "Now Draco. What do you think of my offer?" The literature professor calmly asked, leaning back in his chair and trying to ignore the sad pathetic attempts at the Kreutzer etudes. Draco started a moment and looked slightly guilty as he capped the flask of alcohol and tucked it away in his robes.   
      "It's a good idea. I've been wondering what to do on my vacation, other than sit and listen to talentless gutter snipes viciously murdering Schubert." Here Remus allowed Ginny and Draco an exchange of vicious glares before hastily going on.   
      "Most of my students have never even touched a piano, so they just can't really see the connection between music and literature."   
Draco turned back to Remus. "Of course. Don't worry, they just need a good example. I'll go, of course. What literature piece are you going to use anyways?"   
      "I was thinking of…Pinocchio?" Draco choked on his spiked tea.   
      "Pinocchio?!"   
      Remus looked sheepishly at him. "Maybe I should change it?"   
      "You might want to!"   
      "Any suggestions?"   
      " 'Grease!'" Ginny suggested over her shoulder.   
      "Shut up you!" Draco growled. "How about 'Romeo and Juliet'?"   
      Shaking his head, Remus explained that they'd already studied Shakespeare. "I was thinking of maybe an opera, or ballet?"   
      "Carmen? Swan Lake? Nutcracker?"   
      "No…Tried those examples. Some aren't even sure of the storylines."   
      Ginny had lain down her violin and was stretching her fingers. She craned an inquisitive ear towards the two men and casually started to listen in.   
      "Madame Butterfly?"   
      "No, I don't think so…"   
      "How about the Butterfly Lovers Concerto?"   
      "The what?"   
      "Never mind."   
      Losing interest, Ginny began edging listlessly out of the room. Maybe she could escape before her practice session was up and be free! Quietly, she backed up against a door, spun around, and quickly opened it, before shrieking as rolls of parchment and framed posters fell out on her. 'Damn,' she thought desperately. 'Stupid closet doors!'   
      "Ginny! What in tarnation?!   
      "What have you done?! Weasley!"   
      The two shocked men hurried over and began digging the girl out of the pile of dust and old playbills and stuff. Meanwhile, Draco was raging at the poor girl for messing up his collection.   
      "You couldn't have picked a better time, I'll give you that, Weasley. Can't you see we're discussing something important? If you want out so badly, at least use the right door! Bloody hell, you know how old some of these are? I don't have time to clean this up! Some people are busy, you know? Some people actually have jobs to think of!"   
      Ginny, who had been stammering "But…but…but…" was cut off again and again, and finally lost her temper.   
      "Oh for Heaven's sake, why can't you just pick that bloody Disney movie with dancing hippos and get on with it!" she shrieked, ripping a poster of 'Casa Blanca' off her head and kicking 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' from her left foot.   
      Remus and Draco stopped abruptly.   
      "…what did you say?"   
      " I said 'oh for heaven's…"   
      "No no no. That part about the movie."   
      "What? The Disney movie? Dancing hippos? I don't remember what it's called. 'Harmonia', 'Utopian'? 'Fantasma'?"   
      "'Fantasia'! She's talking about 'Fantasia'!"   
      "By god that's It! Ginny! You're genius!"   
      "Hey hey hey, now wait a minute, do not be too generous with your compliments, especially to her." Draco warned.   
      "Well, maybe I am, and you just don't want to admit it." Ginny taunted. Draco glowered and stalked to her music stand.   
      "You've got two hours to learn this piece. Now jump to it." He slammed a sonata down on the stand and shoved Ginny and her violin in front of it.   
      Ginny stared at the opened music score before her, mouth agape. He expected her to learn this…in two hours?! There were double-stops, trills, spiccato, and pizzicato littered all over the sheet, and not to mention consecutive 64th notes running at a speed of presto!   
And scales…all in E Major.   
      Ginny slowly turned to face Draco, eyes wide with disbelief. Her mouth opened and closed slowly, silently praying that he would be more lenient on her.   
      Her prayers fell upon deaf ears.   
      Draco yawned hugely, pointedly ignoring Ginny's pleading eyes as he glanced at the clock. He calmly turned to the other two. "I'll be taking a nap for about…oh, two hours. God knows I need my sleep." He reached over his head and stretched a bit, waiting expectantly for a sharp reprimand from the redhead.   
      Before the words can roll off of Ginny's tongue, Remus intercepted skillfully. "Well, then go on to bed. I'll keep an…er, ear on Ginny's progress." He waved his hands to Draco, shooing him away towards the stairs.   
      Draco sighed in relief, and before heading up the stairs, threw a smirk at the violinist. The thump of his shoes against the wood resounded through the hall.   
      Ginny plopped down on a nearby chair angrily, nearly throwing her violin down onto the floor in her fury. "Why does that git get to take a nap and I don't?!" She glared at Remus unintentionally, lashing out at him. "I'm the one slaving away with this bloody violin, doing every bloody thing he tells me to do! All he does is sit there, and he gets to take a bloody nap?!" Ginny was flinging her hands around now, violin in danger of slipping out of her grasp and breaking into tiny pieces.   
      Remus took this outrage rather calmly. He reached over and grabbed Ginny's wrist, positioning the violin in playing mode. "Well, Ginny, learning to play the violin professionally in six months would be impossible if you don't spend all your waking hours practicing."   
      Ginny nodded.. "Yes, but -"   
As if reading her mind, Remus held up a hand to silence her. "Draco needs his sleep. He needs to be able to think clearly when he teaches you."   
      "But -"   
      "Start practicing. You need to be able to play this in two hours." Remus commanded before heading towards the door. "I'm going for a walk. I think you'll be able to concentrate better with nobody else in the room." He disappeared into the hall. A click can be heard, and shortly after, a door slamming.   
      Ginny rushed into the hall. Yup, Remus was gone. She whirled around to glare at the staircase, as if Draco was still heading up to his bedroom. She growled, images of Draco dying a most horrible death flying through her head.   
      "Just you wait, Draco Malfoy. Just you wait. I'll be the most renowned violinist in all of England, and where will you be? HA!" A malicious grin crossed her features as she cried out triumphantly. "DEAD…that's what you'll be!" She struck a solemn pose, violin raised, before continuing, her imagination running wild. "I'll play for the Minister of Magic, and he'll be so impressed, he'll call this day Virginia Weasley Day! AND…he will grant me one wish. 'Anything?' I'll say. 'Anything,' he'll reply. Then, I'll whisper in his ear, 'Kill Draco Malfoy.'" Ginny laughed with glee. 

"The Minister will ponder for a moment, then jump up with enthusiasm. 'Done!' he'll shout. You, PROFESSOR Malfoy, will be brought blindfolded, surrounded by ministry officials with wands raised. Then, with a wave of my hand, they will all shout 'Avada Kedavra!' and you will slump to the ground, cold and dead!" She plucked random strings on the violin in approval of her planned out future, or rather, Draco's planned out future.   
      "Just you wait, Malfoy! Just you wait!" She shouted one last time before twirling around in twisted happiness.   
      And stopped at the foot of the stairs.   
      Draco was staring at her from the top of the staircase, eyebrow raised in curious wonderment. He decided not to ask. Draco brought an imaginary violin up to rest on his shoulder, and began playing an imaginary tune with the imaginary bow.   
Ginny, shoulders slumped in defeat and embarrassment, raised the violin up to her chin as she walked towards the practice room. A few weak notes could be heard before the door was slammed shut.   
******   
  
*ps: yeah, that last part, it was Mindy! it wasn't me! I'm not that weird and twisted!! Which Mindy? that Mindy! *points* at least we got out the big, fun, Eliza/Ginny rant. TEEHEE.

Kreutzer and Mazas are guys who were excessively bored, so they wrote books of exercises for your fingers. Argh. The bane of my musical life. 

E major scale has four sharps. Not a fun scale to play. Your fingerings get messed up. Yes, your fingers actually have patterns to use when using certain scales…but I'm confusing you. Ignore me. 


	4. Rationalizing the Unrationals I

Sas: You may kill us. Well, what happened, you ask? Aha…school and all its trimmings, I guess. It's harder to work with three people than with one or two, and so there was a great freakin deal of hawkin on someone before we finally got the chapter. Erk. Notes about what you're about to read. It's not actually part of the story. Before you ask if it's too early to write side stories, let me tell you that this is a chapter to tie up loose ends, I guess. Give you why everyone is doing what they are doing. Why? Cause we're too lazy to incorporate information into the fic itself, so here's the whole thing in one big block. 

Diclaimer: we don't own Harry Potter characters and street names and such and such. We don't own much, so don't try to sue us or anything ridiculous like that. Mwee.

~!!~~!!~~!!~~!!~

At here, we shall take a little break, for lack of any inspiration of what to write, and simply explain some of the more twisted, improbable aspects of this story. In other words, we shall answer the question of "What the hell is going on here?!"   
                First off. The mystery of Virginia Weasley, the career choice for Draco Malfoy, and why in the world does Remus get his own room at Malfoy's townhouse, since-isn't-Malfoy's-pop-trying-to-bloody-kill-him? Yes, all these need explanations, and so they shall be explained in this chapter (aka Part One of Rationalizations).   
                Virginia Weasley: Currently 23 years old, single, used to live in the Shack-behind-the-Pratchett's-garden, fully trained witch and is currently training to be a musician. For some reason, she majored in wizard mechanics, but chose the career of being the street bum, living off only on a magically enhanced harmonica. Why? No one really knows, as she was a perfectly sane woman with enough wits around her to earn her a decent job in at least an auto shop.   
                This may be entirely due to her infamous eccentricity, however. The particular branch of Weasleys she was born into was quite strange. She was most undoubtedly the strangest of the brood. For one, she was the youngest of seven children, been possessed by a heinously evil, (but totally hot) diary figure, not forgetting, she was one of the three girls who'd ever turned down the legendary Harry Potter (said that she resented him playing Quidditch without a helmet, even though no one did), and last and most important of all: she was a girl. Plain and simple. Most girls are quite strange. One just doesn't realize it, because most people reading this fic are girls too, therefore, we do not think we are in any way irregular, but I suppose as compared to guys, we still are. Even though the same could be said the other way around.   
                Yes, Virginia Weasley was a female, (usually) lacking the secondary brain, but always with a tight hold on her primary one. When she struck out on her own to face that perilous new world with only her head, a then-new harmonica, and her laundry bag, she had promised that unlike her brother Ron (who'd refused to come home for two years, even though he'd been out of a job, with the lame excuse of 'I didn't want to trouble you, Mum' when in reality, it had been 'my bloody pride! My poor, downtrodden, painfully lost dignity!'. In the end, Hermione had bashed him over the head with one of her giganto encyclopedias and dragged him to the Burrow, where he stayed for two months in a semi-coma because of the impact of the book against his head. It seemed as if Hermione, whom everyone agreed was too weak to actually lift the book herself, probably pushed the book off a ledge from a balcony and hit him purely by chance.) she'd go home if ever in any trouble. So she'd ended up living at the Burrow a good deal longer than any of her siblings put together.   
                Until a few months ago, when her parents had finally decided to lock up the house and take the remainder of the year in Honolulu, as a little reward for themselves. While they hadn't exactly pushed Ginny out of the house, they did imply that if she wanted to hold night long parties, she'd better hold it somewhere neither ten, nor twenty, but fifty acres away from the Weasley's abode. In a matter of seconds, she'd packed and left the house, determined to find another domain. And found an abandoned shack behind so-and-so's yard. Which was quite conveniently located near a main cross street where many Muggles passed. And so started the Harmonica Affair. Much to her surprise, she found she rather liked the old shack, and missed it quite a lot when she got back to sleeping in an actual bed without the company of crickets, beetles, or stray cats. Call her strange, call her eccentric, whatever you may, but there was no doubt that Ginny Weasley was sometimes just plain weird.   
  
                Draco Malfoy was another story altogether. He was 24, almost 25, one of the top most eligible wizard bachelors of all time, and had the most unholy obsession with Bach. Once upon a time, when he was around four or five, his father introduced him to Mr. Yamaha Piano and Ms. Stradivarius Cello, and as they say, the rest is history. After he graduated from Hogwarts, where his musical talent was well-hidden (for fear of looking like a pansy-ass), he decided magic music schools were just not good enough, and conceded to attending Muggle schools, despite his obviously superior caliber. Unfortunately, our dear little musical genius hit a bump right around there. He got into a top music school, and was training with top professors from all around the world, but he had not considered the fact that he might not be the best. He might have been the greatest, most talented back in his home, but he certainly had a long way to go if he wanted international recognition. At his school, he ranked only seventeenth, and that appalled him. In fact, his father had threatened to cut off his allowance if Draco'd proclaimed suicide one more time there.   
                Good thing was, he met one of those amazing, inspirational teachers you watch about in cheesy television movies and read about, and he realized he'd have to work very, very hard. Long story squat, although he didn't quite beat the top two, he did graduate a very respectable third. In fact, one thing that was what earned him the teaching position at Julliard's was his wide range of skill in instrument playing. The somewhat cheesy title of "Great" actually referred to his amazing talent at picking up instruments and being able to play them quite well in less than a month. That doesn't seem a very short time to some people, but believe me, learning instruments in one month time is nothing short of amazing.   
Anyhoo… Draco is: the danged bastard we all hate 'cause he's always nothing short of freakin' perfect.   
  
                Remus Lupin: quite old, age shall _not_ be revealed, and literature professor at Oxford. A wizard-in-disguise, as werewolf wizards are wont to be. Ever since a few years ago, he'd started lecturing about Bram Stoker and Shakespeare after a Muggle friend of his introduced him to one of the higher ranked professors at the college. They happened to be on a perilously short supply of professors and had hired him simply because he looked the job. Lucky for them, he'd also been a literature/history person back in his days. It helped that he had a whole bunch of teaching credentials from a school (Birdbrain College for those magical intellectuals) that sounded strange and rare enough to make it sound like a privileged school.   
Following his being hired, he returned to the Wizarding world to share his joy, and upon returning, found the world in chaos as Voldemort had left it, with a quite insane Lucius Malfoy as right hand. Poor Petey was the left, and didn't seem very happy about it. But no matter. Anyways, an old school chum of his, Narcissa Malfoy, in fact, tracked him down within his first week back and fairly begged him to slap some sense into her husband. All his superfluous evil cacklings were mussing up her awfully fragile nerves. So. One day. Courageously leading a band of famous Aurors, among which Harry and Snuffles were present, they raided the Malfoy manor 'kamikaze' style (amazingly, it worked; the odds which were about as likely as a porcupine turning around and going 'My, these spines are getting rather prickly. Honey, mind pulling them out? We can have shish kebobs tonight!'). It was, quite frankly, an astonishing success, when they caught Voldemort and Lucius laughing and smoking those fat Cuban cigars in the Jacuzzi. Anyhoo, those two would have put up a large fuss had not Seamus' wand malfunctioned and turned Voldemort into a flobber worm that Snuffles, quite by accident, trod on. Lucius was simply handed over to St. Mungos, where he now resides, asking passersby for Cuban cigars and Playwizard bunnies. They ignore him.   
Needless to say, Mr. Lupin was now a very respected man, and although he now had enough money to buy him a small castle on the coasts of France, he nevertheless returned to the Muggle world to teach, of all things, Muggle literature. And he does keep close contact with many of his wizarding friends; he's just bound by contract to teach a couple of years before they let him go. However, it can be said that Mr. Lupin seemed to greatly enjoy his classes and his students, all which highly respected him not for saving their world from the most terrifying, Nat King Cole-singing, evil wizard ever known to the knowing mankind, but just for treating them with as much humility and respect as they gave him.   
                As of current, he is on a well-deserved vacation, and is (like any work-aholic teacher) trying to devise more ways to make learning interesting. And as it is, his friend Narcissa drops word about her wonderfully musically talented son whom-she-is-just-so-absolutely-positively-proud-of, and boom, Lupin was inspired. "There is always a story to music," he'd heard somewhere. 'Whether it be a melody that blatantly screams out 'fairy-tale, epic, classic plotline here' or 'this is just one of those times when you're drunk off your bum and the popping fire is completely captivating'', he'd once heard, 'There will always be some sort of plot to it. Pointless as they may seem.'   
                He'd been captivated by this thought and had tried to explain this to his class, who although were quite enthusiastic about the idea, was only so because their teacher was. Otherwise, they had no earthly idea how in the world an orchestra could tie in with 'Bridget Jones' Sodding Diary'. So after a few pointless, halfhearted attempts at explanations, he decided to ask for Narcissa's son's help. An appointment had been made on a rainy day, and he'd been walking quickly down the street to catch his appointment, when around one corner, he tripped over what must have been the most musically challenged person he'd ever known in his life. And from there, so spawns the tale we now tell. Muahahaha.

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And now back to our regular programming… =^^=

Oh, and criticisms…Be sure to make them constructive? Otherwise we consider them rude, crass, and utterly tasteless. Cheerio.


	5. I'll give you 'Impossible'

                Sas: Annd here's chapter something-or-the-other. In which, Draco gets pissed and someone else unexpected decides to stick their butt in.

                Disclaimer: We have no claims to Beethoven's Sonatas and JK Rowling's characters, there's no [Harry/Draco] slash, so it's all good, please don't sue us, so on and so on.

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"The Impossible Sonata" as Ginny nicknamed it, had a lot of double-lined notes. Ginny stared a bit helplessly, weakly twitching her bow up and down the strings. Although she could actually read her music now, it didn't mean she could play it. She seemed to have no sense of rhythm at all. Those black notes and those big black notes seemed about as different as a zebra and a zebra.   
                "A….g f e f g f e d C….d….c b….natural …c…d…c…b… fla-at…a…" tongue poking out the corner of her mouth. Her bow, eyes, and fingers screeched their way slowly down the page, completely disregarding beat and fingerings. She was very excited. It didn't sound very good yet…but she was actually playing! She was playing the violin! And all on her own!   
                Gleefully, Ginny realized she had finished one entire page, and eager to try it again, started from the beginning and replayed the whole page.   
                'This is fun!' she thought, and played the page a few more times, before deciding to try the next page, with slightly more enthusiasm.   
  
                Draco awoke from his dreams of irregular jumping beans with red hair and stumbled downstairs. The clock read 'twelve o'clock', and he realized with dismay that he'd given the Weasley an hour more practice time than he'd planned. Hurriedly, he brushed his hair and strode downstairs, to where faint strains of the violin was sounding.   
                He met Lupin, who seemed to have gone out for a bit.   
                "Oh hello. You've woken up?" Lupin asked cheerfully. He shifted a large brown bag in his arms.       "I just went out for a walk and thought I'd pick up a bit of grub."   
                "Lovely. Er. Does that mean the Weasley's been all by herself practicing this time?" asked Draco uncertainly.   
                "Well, yes. I thought she might concentrate better without people around." Lupin replied. "Why? Should I have stayed?"   
                "No, it's alright. Can't blame you for wanting to run out screaming," Draco shrugged. He opened the door to where Ginny was practicing. "So, how's our little Musically Challenged Phenomenon doing?" he called out as he entered the room.   
                "I can play three pages!" Ginny said excitedly.   
                "That's nice. Three pages-What?!" Draco pivoted and stared at her. Lupin blinked.   
                "Draco, maybe you really should leave her to herself more often." Draco only stared.   
                "Oh, you can play, three pages?" he asked neutrally.   
                "Yes!" Ginny cried, practically bursting with pride.   
                "Alright… let's see you do it." The faintest of hopes was beginning to stir in his chest. Draco motioned to Lupin to put their lunch down, and sank down slowly onto the couch. He then waved to Ginny, like 'go on, now. Impress me.'   
                Grinning madly, Ginny lifted her violin up to her chin, and began playing Beethoven's Sonata No. 5. The first three pages of it. It had taken the better part of her three to four hours, but she could play every single note on the bloody page, and she did so now, flourishing her bow grandly and holding her back ramrod straight, like the Ferret had instructed. By God, she thought proudly. 'I'm really on my way to being a real musi-'   
                "_Stop_!! Stop! Stop! Stop!!" Startled, Ginny screeched to a deafening stop and stared at Draco, who had leapt from his seat and was regarding her with a mix of abhorrence, incredulity, and horror.   
                "You're _murdering_ Beethoven!! You're killing him! Stabbing him! Fairly dropkicking his poor, _genius_ arse to the ends of the bloody _Antarctic_!"   
Sensing the beginnings of an inevitable fight, Lupin hopped off his chair and hurried towards the door.                 "Well, seems like you two need to settle things down. I'll…er, be off for another walk now." He took one more glance at the pair, and rushed out the door.   
His disappearance went unnoticed.   
                Appalled, Ginny stared at Draco with wide eyes, mouth moving in the manner of a fish as she struggled to get her words out. "M - mur - murdering?! I nearly _killed_ myself practicing the first three pages of this impossible sonata! I played my little heart out, I played 'til my fingers hurt, and you just stand there, criticizing me and accusing me of murdering _an already dead guy_!" she shrieked, jerking the bow into Draco's chest for emphasis.   
                Draco, face beet-red with contained rage, swiftly caught the tip of the bow with his left hand as Ginny brought it towards him for another hard jab. The impact of those two opposing forces caused the thousand-dollar bow to snap in half. Ginny gasped in horrified terror when Draco nonchalantly grabbed the now-useless bow from her grip and threw it away from him. He watched the "stick" clutter away, then turned quickly to glare at the redhead   
                He took in a shuddering, controlled breath before speaking in a constrained voice. "You may have been playing your heart out, but you were not playing WITH it!" He took in another breath, sobering slightly. "You may have been playing the violin physically and maybe-just maybe- mentally, but you were not playing it emotionally, no passion at all." His hand had been moving up unconsciously as he spoke, and now rested over his heart.   
                Ginny sneered at him, despite the serious situation at hand. "Oh, and how is playing with all of my heart going to help me play this right?"   
                Draco's anger flared again. "Obviously, Weasley, you don't want to do this! I should've known…the ability to play a violin would have increased the daily income you 'earn' from your sidewalk harmonica show! Well, Weasley, if money is the only reason you're doing this, then forget about the deal. You are excused from this _pathetic_ situation."   
                "What?!" Ginny gasped, eyes widening even more. "Wait-what?!"   
                "You heard me. Go. Get on with your life. Here's some money to buy some other god-forsaken harmonica." He shoved a few bills into her hands and spun on his heels, reaching for his flask of alcohol.   
                "Wai-wait!" Ginny shouted, racing after him. "You can't just give up on me like that!"   
                "And why not?" Draco asked coldly, gray eyes practically blue with ice.   
                "Because…because I've been working my butt off for two weeks straight, and you can't give an allowance for just one time of no passion?! I don't understand!" Ginny cried, bewildered and hurt.   
                "It hasn't been just this once!" Draco practically shouted. "Since the beginning, you've never ever tried to listen. To me, yes, but to the music? NEVER." Draco returned his unopened flask to his robe as he turned to her.   
                "Have you ever listened to this song?" he pointed at the sheet music that Ginny had been practicing.   
                "Well, of course, I mean-"   
                "No. No, you haven't. You have not listened to that song. You have never listened to _any_ song." Draco corrected.   
                "What- what do you mean? I-"   
                "Weasley. Let me tell you something. It wouldn't matter at all to me, to Lupin. It wouldn't matter to the _world_ if you could not tell apart a quarter note and a whole note. As long as you understood the music. You, you're like a robot. You may be able to play with your fingers, and pretty movements they are too, but if you can't feel the music, then forget about it. I give up." Draco threw his hands into the air, a sign of defeat.   
                Upon hearing his last statement, Ginny didn't know whether to laugh or beg for a second chance. She chose the first option, hoping to poke at the Malfoy pride. "Ha…ha…You-hoo…give up? A MALFOY…giving up?" She gave a few more weak chuckles before stopping immediately at the look on Draco's face.   
                "Weasley, there is a first time for everything, and this is well worth that first time. There's one thing that I hate more than scar-head Potter, and that's an undedicated scum who dares call himself a musician," he hissed, face twisted into a scowl.   
                Ginny panicked, and jumped at the second option. "PLEASE Ma - Professor Malfoy -"   
                "Go pack your bags," Draco snapped, turning around to head out the door.   
                "NO! No no no….please, give me a second chance!" Ginny called after the retreating back.   
Draco whirled around, eyes narrowed to slits as he glared at her. "Give me one good reason why I should. ONE GOOD reason."   
                "I can give you five! One: You've never given up your entire life! Two: You'll be throwing me out onto the streets! Three: I can and I will and I _do _want to learn! Four: You don't-can't- be sure that I'm hopeless! And Five: Five…er…five…" she looked up uncertainly. "You'll….give my family multiple heart attacks?"   
                Draco glared at her, and reluctantly admitted that the sight of Ron Weasley and those aggravating twins on the floor gasping for breath at the news of their sister living with their one great enemy would be positively the best sight he'd see for a long time.   
                "And is that the best you can do?" he hissed, gesturing wildly towards the room. "Is that all you're willing to give? You don't seem to still understand. Music is something you have to sacrifice everything for. I told you that when you started. You have to abandon yourself. Loose yourself. You can't _be_ yourself when you play music."   
                "And I can do that! Just… one more chance, Malfoy. One more chance." Ginny whispered, hand unconsciously clenching at her skirt. "Please."   
                Scowling, Draco took an angry step forward, then stepped back, muttered something unintelligible, and growled. There was a tense silence, broken by cracklings of Draco's anger.  "One more chance. I give you one week to play this like something else." He tossed her something, which she barely caught in time. "Track 3. Listen to it. This is your food, drink, and your sodding toilet. By Tuesday, your sonata had better sound better than that." Raking an irritated hand through his silver hair, he stormed back up the stairs, leaving Ginny feeling slightly numb and incredibly jiggly at the same time. She took one look at the CD cover and gulped. Beating Itzhak Perlman was going to be no easy test.   
  
                "Draco? Ginny? Are you there?" Remus cautiously stepped into Draco's home. When nothing flying and potentially dangerous came his way, he turned and motioned for the person behind him to come in.   
                "When I left them, they were at each others throats. Gods, I hope they haven't killed each other off by now," he muttered anxiously. His companion didn't say anything, only stood in the room, noting the simple furnishings with mild distaste.   
                "What's Malfoy doing in a place like this?" he inquired a mite nastily.   
Remus shrugged as he locked the door and strode down the hall. "Beats me. Although I believe it had something to do with driving an old lady bonkers."   
                "Figures."   
                "Ginny?" Remus ventured into the Green Musical hallway, and his ears instantly picked up on a faint melody coming from one of the rooms. Recognizing it as one of Ginny's violin pieces, he nodded his head to the man behind him and led him down the corridor towards the music. As he approached the source of the music, he realized that the playing couldn't possibly have been Ginny. No way was she that good. And besides, he hardly thought orchestras would fit in that one room, even with magical enhancing.                 "Ginny, it's Remus. I'm coming in…" Cautiously, the professor turned the handle and pushed the door open gently.   
                The music, he realized, was not coming from Ginny as he had rightly guessed. It was coming from the Muggle contraption, a CD player. Ginny herself was sitting at a desk, furiously scribbling notes on a piece of lined paper. Crumpled up paper were scattered around her feet, and Remus noticed that another pile of CDs were stacked precariously on her desk.   
                "…this…piece…makes me feel….very…" Ginny muttered to herself, breaking away from her concentration to take a swig from an aluminum can. "Feel…very…"   
                "Ahem. Ginny?" Remus ventured cautiously.   
                "What?!" the snappy answer threw Lupin off for a moment. He decided he'd really have to talk to Draco about the amount of Red Bulls he allowed her to keep stock.   
                "Turn around, my dear. Er. You have a visitor."   
                Startled but annoyed, Ginny whirled around in her seat, and could feel her eyes widen and her stomach shrink as she realized who was standing next to her professor.   
                "Fred…"   
                The man looked at her in mild horror. "Gosh, Gin. You really have been away too long. Can't even tell me apart from the twins anymore?"   
                "Ron!"   
                "Ah, yes. That's more like it."

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Haha…we give Ron the role of…Eliza's dad. Except he gets a bigger role. Anyways, questions? Comments? There's a very handy button down there that says something akin to 'Review here'. Go ahead and clickety click. And tell us to update more. Or else the next chapter will be up next February. Ehehe… 

-_-;;


	6. Carnal Crocodiles and more Bagpipes

My, we took another detour in getting to this chapter…ehehe…here's chapter six, and goodness we don't have much to say. Have fun~

Disclaimer: we don't own HP characters. We do own Ginny's many broken violin bows. 

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"Ron?"

"Yes, I believe that we've established that fact."

Ginny shook her head, getting over the initial shock of seeing one of her brothers here, of all places. "What are you doing here?"

Ron glanced at Lupin, and then averted his eyes back on his sister. "I was going to go...uh, visit you, at the corner where you usually put on your...show. When I didn't see you there, I nearly went into a panic! That is, until Professor Lupin here came along and told me that you were safe." Ron frowned slightly. "Of course, I never would have associated Malfoy with the word safe, so I asked Professor Lupin to bring me along, and here I am!" Ron spread his arms wide to gesture to the house. Upon another glance around the room, he quickly put them down, a look of disgust etched into his every feature.

"Ahem." A forced cough interrupted the silence.

Ron turned towards the sound and caught sight of the pale-haired man standing across from Ginny. Naturally, his eyes narrowed to slits before he spat out a greeting. "Malfoy."

With a curt nod, Draco replied just as coldly. "Weasley."

Ron stepped between Draco and Ginny, taking a stance as if protecting Ginny from the evil named Draco Malfoy. "Malfoy," he repeated. "I sorely hope you've been treating Ginny right. Otherwise, you'll find that you won't be able to look at another music score again, let alone read it." Without waiting for an answer or retort from the other man, Ron turned to face Ginny and reached out to grab her wrist. "Come on, Ginny. I'm taking y - "

Frantic, Ginny snatched her hand out of his reach. "Ron!"

Draco smirked at her reaction. "Seems like she doesn't want to go with you, Weasley, doesn't it?"

Ron scoffed. "She does! Of course she...does..." Ron faltered, feeling quite skeptical. "Don't you, Ginny?"

The girl in question shuffled uncomfortably. "Well...I...uh..."

"What she's trying to say," Malfoy intercepted, much to the gratitude of Ginny, "is no, she doesn't want to go with you. Any blabbering fool can see that. Well, come to think of it, you're not just any ordinary blabbering fool." Ron began to turn red with embarrassment and suppressed anger. Of course, Draco could have stopped the insults there, but he was enjoying this way too much. "She'd rather stay with me, rather than return with you to that ramshackle dung heap you call your hou - "

"MALFOY!" Ron was positively glowing red by now, heat emanating from his ears. He charged at Malfoy, throwing punches randomly, all of which Malfoy attempted to block. "WHO THE" Punch! "BLOODY HELL" Smack! "ASKED YOU?!"

Ron was ready to throw another punch, when a loud, smarting "whack!" landed atop his head. Ron opened his mouth and...

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW! OW OW OW OW OW..."

He whirled around, hands gingerly touching the bruising top of his head.

And there stood Ginny.

And in her hand was another broken violin bow, the wooden pieces hanging loosely from a few strands of horsehair (most of which had snapped apart upon impact). Ginny's face was contorted in rage. She flung the useless object away from her, ignoring the yelp as it nearly caught Draco in the face. "Look Ron...I...DON'T...WANT...TO...LEAVE."

Ron gaped at her helplessly, hands on top of his head. "Wh - why not?"

She sighed impatiently. "I've already agreed to a 6-month deal with Malfoy. He's supposed to teach me to play the violin, since he," at this, she turned to glare at Draco, who was carefully inspecting himself for any injuries, "chucked my harmonica into the sewer." She turned back to look at her brother. "I can't back out of this. I've already pledged with my heart to do this. Please...Ron...I really want to learn to play the violin."

He watched her for awhile, trying to formulate an answer. Unfortunately, all the factors didn't fit together into the formula, and he was left - well, confused. "Uhm...are you sure you really, REALLY want to do this, Ginny? I mean, who knows what Malfoy's up to when he agreed to this deal!" A snort came from Draco's side of the room. Both Weasleys ignored it.

"What about Malfoy? Ron...it doesn't matter. Professor Lupin will be here to keep Malfoy out of any trouble." Ginny motioned her head towards Lupin. The professor, who was quiet during the entire scene, nodded his head in agreement.

Ron shifted uneasily. "I'd still feel better if someone else was here to watch...over...you..." He trailed off, the beginnings of a plan storming around in his brain. A small smile curved his lips. "Ginny," he said aloofly, bruised head all forgotten. "How about I stay with you, you know, to watch your progress and such? I'm sure Malfoy won't mind."

Malfoy's head snapped up so quickly, Ginny could have sworn she heard a crack. "Don't mind?! What do you mean 'don't mind'?! You just tried to throttle me to death, and you expect me to not mind?!"

Ron waved him off. "So what do you say, Ginny?"

Ginny pondered, fingers tapping her chin thoughtfully. She turned to look at Ron, and seeing the desperate look on Ron's face, she sighed. "Oh, all right. But - " she pointed a finger at him in a silent warning, "if I catch you and Malfoy fighting again, my violin bow won't be the only thing to break."

Malfoy raised a hand to point out his protests, but Ron cut in perfectly. "Great! I'll just return to retrieve some of my belongings, and I'll move right in!" He grinned triumphantly.

"Yes...perfect." Ginny smiled weakly and gently patted Ron's head. "Sorry about your head Ron, but I really couldn't have you killing the teacher." She then proceeded to push him towards the door. "Now, you go get your things while I make sure that Malfoy leaves a decent room for you."

Malfoy threw up his hands in defeat as he cried to no one in particular. "I have absolutely NO say in this, do I?! It's my house after all! Ah...bugger this." He kicked at his chair, cursing foully when he stubbed his toe. Professor Lupin watched on, failing to smother his laughs as Draco hopped around the room in a rather undignified fashion.

"Oi, Ginny! How about a game of chess?" Ron called as threw open the door to the room where Ginny and Draco were practicing. The two stared at him a long time, noting his dusty, disheveled appearance and the huge chess set in his arms. 

"…Ron, I'm having lessons right now." Ginny said pointedly. "I can't play with you now. Maybe later?"

"Oh, that's alright. I'll just sit and watch then." Ron shrugged, dropped the chess set on the floor, and collapsed on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. Draco winced as he heard his antique marble chess pieces clatter and clink in their box and glared balefully at the intruder. 

"What, Malfoy? You really think I trust my baby sister to you? Alone? Hah." Snorting, Ron sat back and crossed his arms. 

"No, I was just thinking about how much money you just drained when you dropped my Antique Grecian Alabaster chess set, about $150,000 American dollars, I'd say," he replied smoothly, hiding a smirk as Ron gagged and almost fell of the chair. 

"Cheapskate."

"What was that?" Ron, for one so utterly clueless, had the sharpest ears Draco had ever known. 

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Go back to figuring out how many years you'll have to pay me back before I can buy another chess set."

"Why you stuck up, snot-nosed little bas-"

"Ma-Professor Malfoy! Uhm, Can you repeat that thing you said about trills? Again? Please?" Ginny added when she saw the glare thrown her way. She also included some ferocious eyebrow twitching as she tried to convey 'let's not start a war here' with her eyes. 

"…Ginny? Are you alright? Something on your face?" Ron asked, worried.

"No! I'm fine! Haha! Just a bit of dust!" she kicked Draco covertly when he snorted. "Now about that trill!"

Rolling his eyes, Draco started in again on his lecture of finger trills. 

An hour later, Draco could still feel the burning glare of Ron's eyes on his back. It really was not doing anything at all for Draco's temper. Yes, Ginny had improved and had redoubled her efforts, but she was still nowhere near good. 

"Ginny, look at this sign here. Can you tell me what that is?"

"It's…a… sharp?"

Draco sighed exasperated. "No. Look over here. _This _is a sharp. _That_ is a flat. If those are sharps and flat, then what is _this?_"

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows. "It's…a usual?"

"Oh for the love of God, _natural, _Weasley! A _natural!"_ Draco exploded angrily. "Do you need glasses? Because I swear by my troth I will not drag you to the optometrist and back, but I will not! teach you if you can't even see properly!"

"Usual, ordinary, _natural_, they're the same bloody thing! They're just blasted synonyms!!"

"Not in music! Weasley! I've told you that five times this hour! _Why _can't you just _remember _that?! Is there something wrong with your brain as well as your eyes?!"

"Malfoy!!" Ron suddenly appeared between the hissing opponents. "If you do anything to my sister, I'll myself go ahead and rip you-"

"_Ron!"_ Ginny cried, then poked her brother back. "We're having a lesson here!"

Ron looked genuinely surprised as he blinked at Ginny. "But-but Ginny! He's yelling at you! And being a lousy prat!"

"Our lessons are always like this!"

"Ginny!"

"Weasley, I suggest you sit down. I've a headache, lack of caffeine, and a very, potentially dangerous pencil in my hand." Draco growled, rubbing his temples. 

Ron glared murderously at him as Ginny shooed him to his seat. 

"Alright, Gin, but I don't like the way he's treating you!" he said loudly to his sister. 

"Right, right, yeah, yeah. Neither do I. But he's Malfoy, what do you expect?" Ginny hurriedly agreed. 

"Get your arse back up here Ginny. I want to be through with this page before dinner." 

"No references to my sister's arse, Malfoy!"

"_Ron!" _Ginny cried, visibly mortified. Draco snorted. 

"Shut up, Weasley. Or I'll start mentioning even _more_ prominent parts," he replied dryly. Ginny angrily stomped on his foot and folded her arms over her chest. "Now we have to get back to our lessons. Bye!" he hastily added as Ron started growling. 

"Don't you try anything on my sister, damn you!" 

"I won't! Can't you see that I am visibly appalled by the very idea?!" Draco shot back, exasperated. "Why don't you go, oh, I don't know? Stalk Granger or something. We're very busy people right now." Without waiting for a reply, Draco turned and began marking Ginny's music with a pencil. 

Finally heeding Ginny's looks and mouthings, Ron flipped Draco off and stalked from the music room to find Lupin. 

He found the older man in the Muggle parlor, calmly drinking tea and jotting notes down on a notepad as he kept an eye on the big screen television. A huge hippo bounced out of nowhere and squashed a crocodile. Ron stared. Lupin finally noticed him, as he rewound the tape back to the flattening of the reptile. 

"Oh, hello Ron. How was Ginny and Draco?"

"Bloody horrible. Malfoy's being a goddawful fiend, and Ginny's actually on _his _side!" Groaning, Ron sank into the seat next to the professor. 

"Oh… that's nice." Absentmindedly, Remus fast forwarded to where the ostriches came dancing out, looking like fat, black and white poof balls with three sticks bending and twitching to the music. Mystified, Ron looked at the screen, then at Lupin. 

"What in the worlds are you watching?"

"Hmm? Oh, Muggle cartoon. 'Fantasia'. Fascinating, really. I know those crocodiles have some double meaning to them, just can't figure out what. Maybe…they represent…the carnal knowledge of men? See here" rewind rewind rewind "here. Don't you think that that expression is a little, oh, I don't know, lustful? I mean, look at all that teeth, and that quirk of an eye."

Lupin had horrified Ron. 

"That's what Malfoy looks like!" Lupin turned, stared at him, and burst out laughing. 

"It's not funny! Oh, my poor baby sister! Don't laugh!" Ron bit his lip. "I don't know if she'd qualify as a hippo, but, I don't know…it's possible…"

"Haha! Dra-Draco…Gin-ny?! Oh, don't be silly! Oh, oh! Hahaha!" Remus gasped, doubling up on the couch. "They hate each other like dogs and cats! Don't you worry about it!"

Ron stood up, slightly offended by the derisive voice. "Yes. Well. It had _better_ be like that. I'm going to go…wander." He marched away from the chuckling professor with an injured air, and slammed the door behind him as he stepped into the magical part of the house. 

He'd walked about halfway the length of the hallway, stewing silently, when he suddenly realized he was standing next to a door that had a piece of white paper tacked onto the surface. Curious, he read the stark, black letters on it. 

"No entry allowed! Step AWAY from the door! Do NOT come in here, and that means YOU Ginny!" The words were large and angry looking, and made Ron feel rather intimidated. Of course, this at the same time made him all the more curious. Stealing glances behind him and feeling a bit sneaky, he twisted the doorknob, and tiptoed inside the room. 

A room full of strange looking instruments on display met his eyes. Some were huge, long, windy pipe things, and others, small panpipes. One look, and Ron was fascinated. He wandered around the room, gently stroking the strange and foreign instruments, in utter awe. There were so many, and all so tempting! If he could just try one out for size, just once, just once…

Now which should he try first? Ron looked around the room. He spotted so many tempting things to try; that weird, didgeridoo thing, for instance. Hand shaking slightly, he began walking over to the giant, Australian pipe, when suddenly, something else caught his eye. As he turned to look at it, his eyes widened, and his breath caught in his throat. 

A bagpipe. A bagpipe, under a plexi-glass case and heavy surveillance cameras and booby trap wires, but it was a _bagpipe_. Instantly, he yearned to try and play it. With impatient gestures, Ron waved away all the security with his wand, lifted the bagpipe from its place, and fitted it reverently under his arm. He looped the strap around his head slowly, and then lifted the pipe to his mouth….

And blew.

~~!!~~!!~~

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Constructive criticism? Hold your pointer arrow over the review button and click away!


	7. Negation Accommodation with Barney!

Finally! Chapter 7! Poor Ron is Traumatized [capital "T"]

Disclaimer: No own HP Characters! Yes own Negation-Accommodation program!

~!~

Down the hall, into the corridor on the left, and three doors to the right, a startled Draco Malfoy toppled over his seat, knocking the table over and sending his lunch flying and flying and flying - 

And crash-landing on his face.

Ever since the "bagpipe incident", his ears were fine-tuned to even the softest of the bagpipe tones. Quickly assuming that Ginny had snuck off to try the bagpipe again when she should be practicing, he began to bellow at the top of his lungs.

"VIRGINIA WEASLEY! I DISTINCLY TOLD YOU NOT TO GO NEAR THOSE BLOODY BAGPIPES AGAIN!"

He hurriedly wiped his face clean of the remnants of his lunch and was nearly out the door when -

Plunk!

- a piece of rosin rebounded off his head and onto the floor. Patience wearing thin, he picked it up and turned around to face the perpetrator. He came face to face with a very irate Ginny Weasley.

"Malfoy, DON'T you DARE assume that it's me without checking first!"

Malfoy's jaw fell open. What the - why was - how…how did she get here so quickly? The room with the bagpipe was - no wait…that can't be right. That atrocious bagpipe sound is still going. Who else would have the lack of brains to enjoy such vulgar music? Malfoy snarled. 

Weasley.

He looked up to see Ginny watching him.

No, not that Weasley. The other one. Weasel Weasley.

Ginny frowned, although she was vastly amused as his face twisted from one expression to another. She began tapping her foot impatiently. "Well, Malfoy, are you just going to stand there and continue displaying your limited number of facial expressions? Oh…I see you're stuck on the scowl. No no…you've already done 'the snarl'! Try something new."

Malfoy growled in annoyance, then dashed off towards the room where the blasted sound was coming from. Ginny smirked self-satisfactorily and followed suit.

~

Ron grinned madly, clutching the bagpipes closely. Now, THIS is something exciting Malfoy had. He placed his mouth on the pipe again and drew a large breath. He had to hear the sound again, the alluring, mysterious, wonderf -

"WEEEEEEEAAAAAASLEEEEEEEY!"

Bugger. He'd been discovered.

Ron had the grace to look guilty as Draco pounded down the door to the forbidden room, followed closely by Ginny and Lupin. He tried hiding the bagpipe behind him, but the pipes poked out every which way. 

"You…have…touched those….those…." Draco's voice was filled with loathing and rage as he shook, unable to bring himself to say the word 'bagpipe'.

"Bagpipes?" Lupin suggested helpfully.

"That!! You have been playing That! Could you _not see_ all the bloody signs around it that said "_Hands off the- the- the…"_

"Bagpipe." Ginny inserted. 

"--? Could you _not?!_ They're only _all over the sodding room!!!_" Draco continued, raging at Ron, who began looking around and noticing the big, neon warning signs for the first time. 

"Well, so there are! How absolutely fascinating! Say, is that elkilterity that's making them light up like that? How attractive…" He noticed the warning signs on his sister's and Lupin face and fell silent. 

"…Sorry, Malfoy…uhm. Ron sort of…inherited Dad's love of er, Muggle artifacts." Ginny explained weakly as she noticed the steam coming up in trickles from Draco's ears and nostrils. He swung his decimating glare on her and she quickly turned around and ran out of the room. 

"Yeah, I think I'll go work on that uhm. Song now. Right. Bye!"

Lupin meanwhile, mouthed at Ron to 'put the bagpipe down and step slowly away from it! Yes! Now would be a good time!' while keeping a wary eye on Draco. 

"Listen, Draco, I'm-I'm sure Ron didn't mean to ah, upset your bagpipe display. So-so why don't you…return to lunch, and let me take care of this…?" Lupin said soothingly, tentatively jerking the bagpipe from the reluctant hands of Ron and stuffing it pack in its plexi glass case. 

"Aw, Malfoy, it's just a bagpipe. Don't get your knickers in a twist."

"And what if I wear boxers?" Draco growled venomously. Ron shuddered. 

"Er. Right. Right, boxers," Ron amended, his head wondering wildly why he had to know the answer to boxers or briefs. "Now let's all get back to lunch, right?" he turned and nodded wildly at Lupin, then back at Malfoy, who was still radiating hell fire. 

"Oho…no, you don't." Draco shot out one hand and grabbed Ron's collar as he tried to scuttle past him. Ron suddenly found himself face to face with a man with features of an angry, starved bulldog. For a long moment, Draco just growled at him. Then, he twisted his face into a smile. Ron had to remind himself not to piss in terror. 

"If you like bagpipes so much, then I have just the thing…" Rudely, he grabbed Ron's wrist and jerked him out of the room, and stomped down the long hallway. Gibbering madly, the poor Weasley tried to call out for help and free himself of the mad man. He spotted Ginny, who was hiding behind a giant Ming vase, sending him apologetic looks and Lupin, who was shaking his head. Malfoy suddenly stopped and turned to the green wallpapered wall. 

"Come here, Weasley." Ron stood stock still, so Draco shoved him at the wall. There was a wild thought of 'Oh my god!! Malfoy's really gone homicidal!' before Ron fell through, a la Platform 9 ¾. 

Dazedly, the red head crawled to his feet, rubbing his wrists and trying to stop his legs from shaking. The room was in total blackness, and he blindly groped for his wand. 

"No need for your wand, Weasley," Draco's voice suddenly sounded out of thin air. 

"M-Malfoy?! What have you done to me!! Let me out! I'm-I'm not a prisoner!!" Vainly, Ron tried to knock up against where he had fallen through, and found to his growing dismay, that the plaster was back in place. 

There was an evil laugh, and Ron shuddered. Lights suddenly turned on in the room, and momentarily, he was blinded. When his rodopsin had finished burning up, he took a careful look around the room. And then he wished that the light really had blinded him. Anything would have been better than…

Barney-in-Scottish-kilts posters all over the wall, with Scottish-Barney! sing-a-long tapes on constant rerun mode in the VCR and stereo. 

Ron whimpered. 

He hated bagpipes. 

~

"Are-are you sure my brother's going to be okay?" Ginny asked nervously as a loud wailing came from behind the wall. She and Lupin winced as loud, repeated thuds sounded from the inside. Draco carelessly flung a silencing spell over the hallway.

"Of course not," he told her cheerfully. "But don't worry. He loves bagpipes."

"I thought that was the problem in the first place," the literature professor muttered. He patted Ginny's hand sympathetically, and followed an excessively gleeful Draco to the living room. 

Ginny was back in the "Room of Doom", as she had so fondly named the music room. Once again, her eyes squinted as she slowly screeched her way through the song. Occasionally, a scream of anguish would pierce through the house, and Ginny would wince. Whatever Ron was going through, it must be painful.

Just as she was randomly lifting her fingers off and on the string in a _very_ complicated trill, Draco frolicked (yes, frolicked) in, obviously still happy about Ron's predicament. As he listened to Ginny's "progress", though, his big grin began to tremble and droop.

"Oh for goodness sakes, Weasley, your playing could really ruin someone's day, even a day as good as the one when I best your Weasel brother," he snapped, his mouth forming a big huge frown.

Ginny glared at him, still scratching away at the violin when a loud cry resounded through the hallways. Ginny winced.

Draco, however, immediately swung back to his frolicky mood. "Well, I must say it serves him right for touching those blasted bagpipes," he crowed happily, a smug look pasted onto his face.

Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes before setting the violin down. "Where DID you push Ron into?"

"Where did I push him into?" Draco resounded, his grin practically splitting his face in half. "Why, it was an ingenious idea on my part – " Ginny snorted. Draco glared at her and continued, " – that the absolutely terrific room is in existence. I call it a Negation Accommodation, where a person's most recent obsession is examined, and then it is turned around on him to give him the worst nightmare he has ever had, making him absolutely _loathe_ whatever he had liked. Genius, isn't it? I knew that it would come in handy one day," Draco explained, proudly patting his self on the back.

Despite feeling a bit terrified by the purpose of the room, Ginny couldn't help be a bit fascinated. "So what is Ron seeing right now in that room?"

Draco's mouth slowly curled into a smirk. "What is purple, big, and wears a Scottish kilt?"

"Huh?" Ginny thought for a moment. When realization dawned on her, her mouth immediately dropped open, emitting a disbelieving laugh. "Barney?! _Scottish_ Barney?! Are you serious?!"

Draco chuckled. "As I said, it's a genius plan."

Ginny stood there, mouth gaping open as she wondered whether to laugh at her brother's expense, or to run to the room and try to help Ron out.

As if reading her mind, Draco pointed to the neglected violin sitting on the couch and commanded, "Practice. I've got something planned, and you better be ready for it." Ginny picked up the violin as Draco flung a flyer onto the table. She leaned over and began to read aloud the contents.

"'A night of music with Orla Quirke, violinist extraordinaire. Learn the magic of music!' Orla?" Ginny paused, trying to recall the familiar name. "The Orla who graduated from Hogwarts? From Ravenclaw [or whatever house she was in]? _That Orla?"_

Draco nodded. "I heard she is rather talented on the violin. But anyway, we're going to go listen to her concert, see if it'll inspire you to play better."

Ginny huffed at the last comment, but let it slide. "Does Professor Lupin know about this?" She looked around, as if expecting to see the professor pop up suddenly. "Where is he, anyway?"

"The professor was the one who found the flyer. He's currently setting up better enforcements on around the bagpipe." His superior look returned as the idea of his deed returned. "Though I doubt it'll make any difference, as Ron will be so terrified of the bagpipes to stand the sight of it."

Ginny chuckled nervously, making a mental note not to touch the bagpipes or any other instrument without Draco's consent.

A silence descended upon the house. Draco was the first to notice.

"Seems like your brother has been quiet for quite a long while," he pointed out, reaching over to pick up the flyer again. "Think it's time to check up on him?"

Ginny jumped, partly because of Draco's sudden speech, and partly because of her worry for Ron. "Yes! C'mon … let's go!"

~

They freed Ron from the Accomodation-Negating room [poor thing, Ginny could understand only three phrases that babbled from her brother's mouth; "flying kilts," "no underwear," and "he's got _two!_"] and also called the professor from his work. 

"Ah, good. I see Ron has learned his lesson?" Remus asked mildly, taking in note of Ron, who was now huddled in a corner, shaking. 

"Admirably," Draco purred in satisfaction. The sound drew chills up and down Ginny's spine. 

"I don't think he's going to ever recover," she said mournfully, unconsciously playing a scale on the fingerboard of her violin. 

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine," Draco waved off her concern. "Now, let's try the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Start slow, that's it. Long bows, don't press, your fingers have to lift…"

~

Over the next two weeks, nothing of interest happened very much, except that maybe Ginny's technique had improved somewhat. Ron was noticeably subdued, due to his unfortunate…experience, and Remus was busy analyzing Fantasia and asking Draco obscure questions. The music professor himself spent his time alternating between griping at Ginny, smirking at Ron, and giving Lupin encyclopedia-sized answers. 

However, one Monday morning, Ginny woke up and found to her surprise, that Draco for once hadn't woken her up with a metronome set at Presto. Instead, he was leaning against the doorframe and was rapping his knuckles on the wall. 

"Wha- I'm up! What-where's your metronome? Did you conveniently drop it into the English Channel?" Ginny asked hopefully, rubbing her eyes with sore fingers. 

"Nonsense. Get up, Professor Lupin's going back to his classes today."

"Is that it?" she groaned, collapsing back on the pillows. "You can tell him that I'll miss him, he's a great teacher, see him soon, bye."

Draco rolled his eyes and flicked his wand at her, whereupon her bed disappeared and she fell to the ground with an undignified yelp. 

"Pink knickers. Very cute," Draco observed, amused, dodging the alarm clock that came winging his way. "But I think you've misunderstood. We're to accompany the good professor to his class, whereon I shall lecture, and you shall be my visual." He smirked in some private amusement and left the room. 

"By the way, were those yellow ducks I saw on your behind?"

"They're geese! Geese, you moron!" Ginny growled, chucking her slippers after him.  

~!~

WAH! HA! HA!

We actually had this written about two months ago, just haven't gotten around to checking it, and stuff. 

Too lazy, what with AP and finals and summer school… =] [yes, that was a blatant excuse]


	8. Pay attention, class

Apologies, apologies. We've gotten a tad lazy there [just a tad?]. We apologize? Ahaha? 

But we're working on it! Yes! And we do know where this is going! So someday, we will update again! [we refuse to specify dates, as that would be jinxish…]

Disclaimer:  We do not own The Harry Potter characters or universities mentioned or orchestral music mentioned, but the violin is ours. [smile.]

~!~

Professor Lupin's classroom was a wide, lofty area. The sun's light streamed in from tall windows so there was no need of artificial lighting. There was a tall blackboard at one end and across from it, a number of desks that were arranged in a sort of awkward pattern that suggested there _was _no pattern. The people sitting at the desks chatted amiably with each other, quite at ease in the room, even if the professor had been among them. On this day though, it seemed that the professor was just the teeniest bit late, and the professor was rarely late, if ever. 

"Good morning, everyone! How were the holidays?" Remus strode into the room, smiling brightly at his students. "Terribly sorry I'm late. I was talking with a guest speaker I've invited today and lost track of time." Remus set down his notebooks and turned to his class of twenty-three students. He swept his eyes casually over the young men and women, and his smile widened imperceptibly as he saw his godson [in all but name], Harry James Potter. The black haired boy grinned back at him from his seat at one of the too-small desks. 

Remus had been initially surprised when after the Dark Lord's defeat, Harry had simply decided to quit Auror training and go back to Muggle college, but he couldn't say he was displeased. His current job allowed him to spend much more time with James and Lily's son than otherwise. 

A girl in the second row raised her hand. 

"What kind of guest speaker?" she asked curiously. 

"I've invited a music professor, the son of a very old acquaintance of mine, to come talk about music. I know," he continued, holding up a hand to stop the girl's question. "Ms. Branley, that this is a literature class, but I figured we might as well try a different approach to learning."

Sara Branley put her hand down, and reluctantly smiled back at the professor. He in turn chuckled before taking role [roll?]. 

Just as he finished checking off the last person, there was a knock on the door, and he called out a welcome. The door opened slowly, and the students all leaned forward in their desks, curious to see their guest lecturer. Clear, sharp footsteps sounded in a casual pattern, and then stopped for a moment. There was a small scuffle, and they heard two voices, a low, drawling one and a higher, sharp feminine voice. 

"Hurry up, don't drag you feet."

"Well, stop affecting that pose. You look ridiculous."

"It makes me look intimidating and suave. What would _you _know? Stand up straight yourself, chin up!"

"Go in already!" 

And with that, an irritated Draco Malfoy and a glaring Ginny Weasley entered the classroom. 

Almost immediately, the entire class' jaws dropped. 

'Oh my,' Sara Branley thought, along with the fifteen other girls. 'Oh my oh my oh _my!_"

Draco was wearing a gray suit with a black tie and polished leather shoes. His silver hair was covered with an ash-colored velour hat. Gray eyes that matched the hat looked sharply at his female counterpart, Ginny, who was looking pretty, but rather too formal in a black ankle-length skirt and white silk blouse with rhinestone buttons. Her fly away curls were for once under control and tied back with a blue ribbon and she was holding a black violin case. 

For a second, there was absolute silence in the classroom, and then, very loudly, and very incredulously, a voice broke it. 

"_Ginny?!"_

The red head broke her glaring contest with her teacher and turned to look at the speaker with astonishment. 

"Harry!"

"And…is that…_Malfoy?! _Good God. It is you." Harry looked like a child having gotten a dictionary for a Christmas present.

"Potter." Draco's voice sounded as enthusiastic as a flobberworms'. He and Harry exchanged mutual looks of dislike. 

"Harry, do sit down. Class, may I introduce you to Professor Draco Malfoy- Harry, do not snort- of Julliard's and his student Ms. Ginny Weasley." Lupin sat down behind his chair, looking extremely pleased with himself, and for a second, Ginny wanted to growl at him. 

Draco seemed unperturbed by Harry's presence though, and after greeting the class, smoothly launched into an improvised speech. Meanwhile, Ginny stood to the side, letting her mind wander around. She didn't really know why she was here; she would have much rather been at home keeping a careful eye on Ron, but Draco had insisted that she was vital to his speech. So clueless, but secretly flattered that he'd admitted a need for her, Ginny had consented to come. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he spoke smoothly of his topic. He'd thrown his jacket over the back of his chair and had rolled up his sleeves, giving him almost an informal but "cool" look. Ginny bit her lip as she realized how much he reminded her of a member of the Italian mafia, with his slick hair and smooth attitude. Any moment now, and a cigarette would appear dangling from his lips and he'd say in a thick Italian accent…

"Ginny!"

Ginny jumped, surprised. Draco was quirking an eyebrow at her and was motioning to her violin. 

"Would you play the Rimsky-Korsakov for the class? The simplified version would be fine."

Nodding, Ginny knelt and took out her violin and her bow. She placed the violin under her chin and while Draco gave her an "A", she mock-tuned the strings. Actually, neither she nor Draco trusted her ear, but it would do good to play-act a bit. 

Finally, she began playing in earnest the memorized piece. It had been a piece she'd played three weeks into her studies, and she knew it quite well. The song was a simplified 'Young Prince and Princess' and had a beautiful tune. Ginny played it quite confidently. It was one of her favorite melodies, and she'd worked hard on it. When she finished, she bowed slightly as the class clapped and bent to put away her violin when her teacher stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. 

"Don't put it away yet," he instructed her, and then continued to talk to the class. "Now, my student here has only been learning for about a month and a week. The piece she just played is from a symphonic suite called 'Scheherazade', which outlines the story of Arabian Nights. It is called 'The Young Prince and Princess,' and illustrates the romance and the emotions of a young couple. However, could any of you get that feeling from what Ginny just played?"

Uncertainly, some of the class shook their heads while others nodded. 

"No, you cannot. My student has not yet learned to play with feeling," Draco said a tad bit more sarcastically than was called for. Ginny positively glared at him. "From her playing, you cannot tell the rioting emotions, the raw yearning, the sad, sweet love that this couple exchanged. No! You can only derive that maybe-just _maybe_- these people had a sort of complicated relationship," Draco continued, gleefully ignoring Ginny's boiling glare, Harry's shocked anger, and Lupin's head-shaking. He turned to Ginny and took the violin and bow. 

"This is usually how the music would sound, had it been played as Mr. Rimsky-Korsakov had intended," Draco announced before he began to play the song. 

Ginny wanted to refuse to listen. She wanted to ignore him and concentrate on boring a hole through the back of his head, but then he had to go and play. 

And it wasn't just a song anymore, it seemed. It wasn't a just song; it was…it was everything else that mattered. Ginny noticed vaguely that Draco was sticking to the simplified version, but it didn't make a difference. His face had changed as he played. His eyes became half-lidded and dreamy; his back, if possible, even straighter, yet still his posture seemed natural. The whole atmosphere of the room seemed to change and warp around him to suit the music that he produced, music that he gently coaxed out of each string and glide of the bow. 

Clearly, Ginny's mind began to understand 'The Young Prince and Princess'. She saw the two lovers together; she saw their struggle, their love and passion for each other, and the turmoil they went through. Drawn out by the music, all sorts of emotions surfaced Ginny as she listened. Each high note produced a thrill, each musical phrase moved her so, each glide filled her with such longing, and Ginny was not surprised when a tear near fell from her eyes. And too soon, the beauty ended into one lost, hopeful note that drifted into a riveting silence. 

Quietly, almost subdued, Draco lowered the instrument, deliberately ignorant of the shocked and moved faces surrounding him. 

"That…is what music is supposed to be."

~!~

A/N: 

Hm… that felt really short…

Oh well. 

Thanks to:

**Laverne de Montmorency** [if you do someday learn the bagpipe, drop us a note!!]**, Meadow A**[wishing you a long and happy stay at ff.net~]**, SamiJo **[they show this movie is speech class? Dude, maybe I(mindo) should take that class…]**, Anndy Malfoy **[wah! Had no intention of smearing your venerable half! .;; sorry~]**, Aahz** [didya watch it yet? Didya? And wow, that's a crazy coincidence!], and **Airiya** [we honestly didn't try to make Ginny that stupid…just…er… strange… ^^;;]

Dank~


	9. shining concern?

Good god. Can it be? Yes, I do believe it's MFW's ninth chapter! 

We have actually updated!

Disclaimer: Don't hold ownership over Harry Potter characters, as they owned by JKR and other rich people.

~!~

Ginny gave a loud sob, the sound muffled by the pillow she had buried her head in. She reached out toward the tissue box sitting on her dresser, searching for a relief from her running nose. Finding none, she gave a loud cry and flung the box across the room. She sighed, settling back into the bed as she thought back to earlier in the day.

After the astounding performance, there had been a stunned silence as the meaning of the touching music sunk into every single brain in the room. Then, it was like a stampede had occurred in that very room as everyone, including Harry, had rushed to the front of the room in order to talk to the genius who had been able to draw the very story, the very emotions of the characters out of a piece of music. Ginny had been pushed to the side, her performance quickly forgotten.

"It's not fair!" Ginny cried out, her hands fisting at her sides.

"What's not fair?" Ron poked his head through the doorway, quizzical eyes watching Ginny.

Ginny looked at her brother, then turned over in her bed. "Go away, Ron."

Ron shook his head before moving entirely into the room, then taking a space on Ginny's bed. "No, Ginny. You've been sitting in here, crying, ever since you came home from Lupin's class. Why? Is it something that Malfoy did?" he asked anxiously.

Ginny sighed, sitting up on the bed. She thought back to the way he had embarrassed her … "In a way …"

Ron's eyes darkened immediately. "What Ginny? What did the git do?"

"Oh, Ron!" Ginny wailed, flinging her arms around him in a hug. "He played s-s-sooo beautifully today that you can just im-m-magine the story from the notes coming out of the violin!"

"Oh … is that all?" Ron asked, clearly confused.

Ginny looked up at him, staring at him in disbelief. "Is that all? IS THAT ALL?! Ron, he was wonderful! How can such a git have so much talent?" Ginny sniffed. "The way I played made the music sound so … lifeless. He made it come alive! It was so moving, it touched everybody's heart … Oh, I'll never be able to play like that! Never!"

Ron stared helplessly as his sister burst into tears all over again. He patted her back comfortingly, not quite knowing what to say and saying something anyways. 

"There there, Gin. It's not that big of a deal, is it? Come on, chin up," Ron said encouragingly.

"But it _is_ a big deal, Ron! I didn't think-I mean, I never thought-" Ginny took the handkerchief Ron handed her and blasted her nose in it. "I never thought-music was anything-more-than mu-music, and then he goes and-and he ruins _everything_. How am I supposed to beat him? Ron, I can't do this! I don't know about this anymore!" Ginny sobbed. Ron bit his lip, and soothingly stroked Ginny's hair. 

"Oh, chin up, Gin. All-all this means, is that Malfoy's….had a bit of a…head start. You work hard enough, you'll catch up with him, don't worry. I mean, wasn't there that old Chinese saying? Er, 'the student always bests the teacher'? Something like that?"

"Not very bloody likely. And have you noticed that we aren't exactly _Chinese_ here?!" Ginny snapped back. 

"Cariad, it's a _saying_. Not a race-definitive," Ron replied, scathingly. 

"Well in either case, I'm screwed. Effed up beyond all. By the end of the bet, I'll be the laughingstock of the town, or even worse, absolutely forgotten, scorned, and kicked out," Ginny said bitterly. 

"No you won't," Ron said with a sudden firmness in his voice. "Let me tell you something, Gin. When I see you, I see a sister with the tenacity of a bulldog. Remember how you wanted that Little Muggle Mary doll set? It took you two years, but you finally sold enough lemonade to buy the exclusive prom version. How about when Fred and George wouldn't let you into their "club"? For one week straight, you sat outside their room singing the never-ending song until they broke down and let you in. Of course, you drove them a tad insane, but that's understandable. Now you're telling me that you want to give up on something that has moved you to-to tears? No-don't nod! Sis, you're a great girl. Take it from a bum like me; talent isn't to be taken lightly."

"Talent? What talent? I have all the talent of a _bullfrog_," Ginny scoffed unhappily, but Ron shook his head. 

"Gin, you're as bad as Malfoy lets you think. You might really have something here, though here and there, there are holes, but why don't you think Malfoy has given up on you yet? It's been a month; he hasn't kicked you out yet. If you had no talent, you really think he'd let you stay? No, of course not. You'd be back where you were, blowing noise out of a little tin box with holes."

"It's a _harmonica_, Ron!" Ginny sniffed, but she smiled faintly. 

"That's my girl," Ron grinned and gave her a one armed hug. "Now Malfoy [ugh] tells me that there's a certain concert that he wants to take you to- please tell me it's not a date, Ginny! _Please!-_ but he said something about extra practice hours for preparation. Dare you take up that challenge?"

Ginny nearly groaned, but she bit her lip, and grimaced bravely. "I can do it. I _will_ do it. I'm ready-"

"Perfect, because you have two hours of practice, starting in oh, five minutes. Get to it, chop chop," Draco's voice said from outside the room, making Ginny and Ron jump. He appeared for a brief moment in their view. "Hurry, I'm _waiting_."

"-I think," Ginny finished weakly as Draco's footsteps echoed down the corridor. "You think he overheard us?" she asked Ron nervously. Her brother just gave an evasive shrug. 

"Don't know, Gin. If he was, wouldn't he have come in earlier and give us all a telling off?" he replied, and Ginny smiled brightly. 

"You're right. The cad wouldn't give me the pleasure of being cheered up, would he?" she said readily, then stood up and brushed herself off. "I'll be going now," she said with a resigned sigh. 

Ron was just relaxing; when his sister stuck her head back in. 

"By the way, Ron…" she hesitated, and bit her lip. "Thanks for, you know…being there and…"

Ron grinned widely. "Go on, get out," he shooed, and she grinned and left. Ron let his breath come shooting out like a rocket. Malfoy, overhearing them? That was actually much more plausible than Ginny would have thought. After all, it had been Malfoy who'd requested him to talk to her, after they'd returned from Lupins' class. Ron had thought he looked slightly irritated when he came into his room, and his tone and choice of words were rather caustic, but had that been- no, it couldn't have. Malfoys don't feel concern, and worry certainly never shine from their eyes. 

~

"This is what you will be starting today," Draco said, plunking a thick sheaf of sheet music with flourish onto Ginny's rickety music stand. 

"Fritz Kreisler's  Praeladium and Allegro. His Liebeslied. The Symphonie Espagnole. You'll be playing them _all,_" he said smugly, nearly cracking from glee. Ron coughed and looked over Ginny's shoulder at the huge amounts of notes and general craziness on one sheet of music. 

"Malfoy- don't you think that's a bit-a bit _overboard?_" he asked dubiously. 

"Overboard? Nonsense. This is Ginny's sixth week. She'll be fine," Draco snorted, rolling up his sleeves and crossing his arms over his chest. 

"Ginny? Ginny, answer me, dear," Ron said, ignoring Draco as he poked his sister. Ginny was in a state of catatonic shock. Those were- a lot, a _lot_ of bloody notes, and they were dancing so fast!

"Ablah ra abwah heh?" she managed to say. 

"Sorry? Anyways, we'd better get started if we want to learn all this by Orla's concert, no?" Draco said cheerfully as he shuffled the pages to the Praeladium. 

"Co-concert? As in the concert in seven weeks? _That_ concert? Because if it's that concert, I don't know if I can…" Ginny protested feebly, still staring at the page. 

"Of course you can. Now you're going to sight read this page while your brother here gets to lunch. Now! Go on," Draco said briskly, shooing a glaring Ron off to the kitchen. He had decided that Ron would have to earn his keep, and while the redhead was a klutz at dusting, he had surprising skills in the kitchen. Of course, poisoning was a major concern; however Draco didn't think the Weasley honor had sunk so low yet. He turned back to Ginny whose eyes were watering from trying to read the notes. 

"Professor, this-this is a giant leap from Adoration, don't you think?" she asked desperately. Draco looked over the music. 

"Weasley, believe it or not, I wouldn't give you anything if I didn't think you could handle it," he said breezily. Ginny blinked. 

"You-you really think I can handle this?" she asked incredulously. Draco rolled his eyes and glared at her. 

"Don't push it, you," he growled, but Ginny was already in spastic ecstasy. 

"I-You _believe_ in me? Really? _Really?_ Oh, Professor _Malfoy__!_ I never thought-"

"_WEASLEY!__ GET! PLAYING!"_ Draco roared, and Ginny immediately snapped her attention back to the music. 

~!~

Oooh, Kreisler is fun music. Of course…I never finished even one half of the Praeladium…=^^=;;

Anyways. This took an awful long time!

But I assure you, everything's still coming along swimmingly. 

So see you next year?

Thanks to [too lazy to write complete responses…hee]:

**Anndy**** Malfoy, Neytari Took, Airiya, SilverDragon, h.s., Lady Silver Dragon I, **and** Kai baby-girl**

Your feedback is very, VERY much appreciated!!!


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